


Harry No. 5 and the Order of the Phoenix

by Silverfox



Series: Harry No. 5 [5]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-07
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-20 09:13:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 38
Words: 39,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16553015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silverfox/pseuds/Silverfox
Summary: And another year at Hogwarts Institute ...





	1. Chapter 1: Dudley Demented

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.
> 
> Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.
> 
> Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.
> 
> Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.
> 
> Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.
> 
> Notes: Uncle Sirius explains rules.

Chapter 1: Dudley Demented

 

Harry was quite surprised how quickly Hedwig returned with a reply to the letter he'd sent to his secret uncle Sirius to explain the moral qualms he had about continuing their secret relationship. Reading it at the Gryffindor table didn't seem like a good idea, though. His classmates would see and then they'd ask who was writing to him, or they might even try to read along over his shoulder. Who knew, there might even be spells that enabled you to read something from much further away!

If they found out Harry had a secret uncle he was quite sure most of them would be furious. How dared he have a relative and exchange letters with him when they had to wait until they turned sixteen? And he was the youngest in their year at that, the only one who wasn't even fifteen, yet.

Well, technically the only one as Neville's birthday would be celebrated that very evening.

So despite the guilt he felt over it Harry pocketed the letter casually and continued to eat his lunch. He left the Great Hall still chewing the last bite, though, and ran to the nearest bathroom where he locked himself into the first cubicle and sat on the toilet to read.

'Dear Harry,' his secret uncle had written. 'I think it is well past time we cleared up one thing: Rules exist to be broken and at your age you really ought to know that. Now, don't misunderstand me. I'm talking about rules such as curfews, being quiet in the library and not setting off stink bombs in Professor Snape's classroom, the sort of thing the institute staff make up to spoil your fun.

Laws are a different matter, though even among them there is quite a number of useless ones that are best ignored. Important laws, however, must of course be obeyed: Like those that forbid you to kill or torture your fellow wizards, the ones Voldemort and his Death Eaters are breaking. Never ever let me hear that you have broken one of those!

As far as the rules that forbid you from knowing your family and writing to them, why those only exist to prevent you from pestering your parents with all your childish thoughts and experiences when they do not have time to bother with such nonsense. Now please keep in mind that I am not actually related to you by blood! I have chosen to feel connected to you as if I were your uncle. As such the rule against knowing your relatives cannot even apply to me! We would only be breaking it if I were to reveal the names of your parents to you. Not that I would have a problem with that if you wanted to know, but I can see that you prefer to be a good boy and so I won't. Tell me if you ever change your mind on that point, though.

I am not actually your relative and I do not feel in the least bothered by your letters. In fact I often wish you'd write more! Most of the time they are far from childish nonsense by the way. You are already of a quite reasonable age after all. The sixteenth birthday is an arbitrary deadline if you ask me. Clearly a child can be expected to write interesting letters sooner than that. And just how fair do you call it that one of your classmates whose birthday happens to be next week would be allowed to write to his relatives all next year while you should not?

No, Harry, I do not want to hear - or rather read - any more such nonsense about you feeling guilty over writing to me. I have asked you to do it and you are doing me a favour by complying. In fact, I would feel very hurt and miserable if you stopped. You wouldn't want to make me unhappy, would you?

Also, what is that about not wanting to feel special? I have never head such rot before in my life and would like very much to have a stern word with whoever put that into your mind. How does he even imagine that you could avoid it? Of course you must feel special since you can fly especially well, just like your friend Hermione must feel special because she gets especially good grades, just like Ron must feel special because he is especially tall. I could go on. There is something special about every child and I bet you they all know it and wouldn't dream of trying to change it. Why then should you not feel special over writing to me as well as over flying so well? It doesn't make a difference.

Now stop those stupid worries and tell me about the third task already. I have read about it in the Daily Prophet of course and have heard a lot about it from those fellow Aurors who were there for security, but you saw how reliable the Prophet is when Rita Skeeter wrote that article about you and none of those Aurors even spoke with you. They said that they thought you weren't hurt, but that you did give up early and then I heard about that fiasco with Barty Crouch junior masquerading as old Mad Eye. Please tell me you are unharmed and didn't get caught up in that!

Your very worried Uncle Sirius.'

Harry sat there and stared at the letter for quite a while after he had finished reading it. It seemed so very confusing and full of strange thoughts, that all he could really tell from it was that his secret uncle Sirius did not want him to stop writing and apparently felt so strongly about it that he hadn't thought through and structured his arguments. He knew from his lessons that that was why rushed essays were incomprehensible and received bad marks.

He also could tell that Uncle Sirius was very worried about him after the third task. This was of course Harry's own fault because first he'd taken so long to reply to Uncle Sirius' last letter and then had forgotten to answer any of the questions in said letter. He really had to make up for that now, but while the toilet was quite practical for reading in private there was no way he could write there. It might have worked if he'd had a Muggle pen, Harry thought, but writing with a quill required a table to put the ink pot on. If he tried to put it on the floor and write on his knees he'd leave ink stains all over the floor and parchment ... and on his robes as well, but those were black anyway.

So he put the letter back in his pocket and returned to Gryffindor tower.

Maybe if he put one of last year's schoolbooks on the table as he wrote people would think that he was studying to prepare himself for the next school year.

He'd use the Divination book, he decided after a moment. All his classmates knew that he was bad at Divination, but had visions sometimes. It would seem perfectly reasonable that he wanted to improve his performance there.


	2. Chapter 2: A Peck of Owls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: I wonder whether this letter will reassure Sirius.

Chapter 2: A Peck of Owls

 

"There you are!" Ron welcomed Harry the moment he stepped through the portrait hole into the common room "Where did you go? We thought that was Auror Black's answer that Hedwig brought you?"

"Sssshhh!" Harry hissed at him. "Not so loud!"

Ron nodded and continued at a whisper. "So was it? There's hardly anyone here anyway. They've all gone outside except for the seventh years and they've got more important things on their minds."

Harry pulled Ron past the small group of studying seventh years and towards the stairs anyway.

"Is anyone in the dorm?" he demanded.

Ron shook his head. "No, but was it Auror ..."

"Shhh!" Harry hissed again now getting funny glances from some of the older students after all. "Then we can talk up there."

They went upstairs and the moment Harry had closed the door behind them Ron started up again.

"So was it ..."

"Yes, it was," Harry admitted. "And I have to reply to him right away. I forgot to say all the important stuff in my last letter and now Uncle Sirius is all worried."

"So he said you should keep writing to him?" Ron asked.

"Yes, and it's urgent, but I have to do it in a way that nobody gets curious what I'm doing. It has to look like I'm doing homework, but we haven't got any homework now."

Ron scoffed. "Oh nonsense. Nobody will care what you're writing. It could be ... a message to Draco, or a letter to Percy, or an order for chocolate frogs, or a letter to the editor of the Daily Prophet. That paper has reported enough nonsense about you this week to merit a correction."

"But then they might want to see what I'm writing!" Harry protested.

"Fine, then say it's a private letter to Percy. Or make it Oliver. The only ones of our friends that knew Oliver well enough to want to see that are the twins and you can tell them about your secret uncle. Theyâ€™d think it's a cool secret and never tell on you."

"Alright," Harry agreed after a moment. "But I'll take along my Divination book as well just to be sure."

In fact he took his whole school bag down to the common room and squeezed into the most out of sight place that wasn't already occupied by a seventh year. Ron followed and placed himself right beside Harry in full view of everybody so he could watch what Harry was writing.

'Dear Uncle Sirius,' Harry began anyway since he realised that he'd never get rid of Ron without drawing even more attention. 'I am very sorry I forgot to answer your questions in my last letter. No, I was not hurt at all in the third task. I walked into some strange field that turned the world upside down and didn't know how to get out of it. So I had to signal for help and Professor Hagrid came and rescued me. He said it was alright because I wasn't supposed to have learned about it yet. Fleur had already given up as well, though, so I didn't even do worst in the tournament. But Mr. Barty Crouch Junior later said that he had helped me all along and removed obstacles in the maze for me, so I don't know how good I really was.

Anyway, then I fell asleep and had a vision of how Victor arrived at that graveyard and You-Know-Who took his blood to revive himself. That was horrible! I have nightmares of how Victor just stood there and let it happen. When I woke up I went and told the headmaster and he said he knew where that place was and all the best fighters among the Professors and all the Aurors that were supposed to protect us went to rescue Victor, but they were too late.

But talking about Aurors, Uncle Sirius! Guess who was among them! Your partner Auror Potter who isn't allowed on Hogwarts grounds either! I know the Ministry would never have sent him. Unless he has a twin brother? Does he? The other Aurors didn't seem to think it at all strange, but maybe they don't know about the ban? They weren't there when the Minister decided it after all.

At first I thought that Auror Potter must be the Death Eater that the headmaster had said must be at Hogwarts, but that turned out to be Mr. Barty Crouch, so I am not sure why You-Know-Who sent Auror Potter to watch the third task, but maybe he was supposed to help Mr. Crouch.

So please be careful around Auror Potter, Uncle Sirius. I'm sure he is a Death Eater and now that You-Know-Who has returned he might become very dangerous to you. Maybe you can arrest him? Or if you can't prove that he is a Death Eater, you could try to get another partner so he can't hurt you. Iâ€™d feel terribly sad and guilty if you were killed by him, so please be careful!

Where was I? Oh right! The rescue party came too late and they brought Victor back on a stretcher all dead. They had put a cloth over his head, but it came off when I pushed the stretcher. His eyes were wide open and didn't move at all! I have nightmares of that, too. You-Know-Who is terrible! Well, of course I already knew that. Professor Hagrid said so when he first told me about him, but he is even worse than I imagined. Can you please arrest him soon so that he can't kill any more people? But please don't get killed yourself while you do it!

Well, then Mr. Barty Crouch Junior took me away, except that I thought he was Professor Moody, of course, or I would never have gone with him. He promised me a calming drought and we went to his office. There he told me that he was a Death Eater and wanted to kill me, but don't worry, Uncle Sirius, because Professor Dumbledore came and rescued me. And then Mr. Crouch told us a lot of horrible things that he'd done, so I am not at all sorry that the dementor kissed him even though the headmaster and Professor McGonagall were really angry about it. But by then I was all safe in the hospital wing, even though I wasn't hurt at all!

Love,

your Harry number 5


	3. Chapter 3: The Advance Guard

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Neville gets a birthday gift that only he likes and was Harry's vision really a vision?

Chapter 3: The Advance Guard

 

"Oooh!" Neville squealed with delight as he unwrapped the ugliest plant Harry had ever seen. "A mimbulus mimbletonia! They must have written my parents how much I love Herbology!"

"They could have sent you a prettier plant," Ron complained "What's that going to look like in our dorm?"

"So what's so special about mumbulus nimbletonya?" Harry asked to distract Neville from the insult to his gift.

"Mimbulus mimbletonia," Neville corrected him. "And it's rare. There isn't one in the institute's glasshouses so it can't have been easy to find."

"Maybe your parents are herbologists," Hermione suggested. "Wouldn't it be great if they had their own glasshouses? Then you could go and work with them after you graduate."

Neville closed his eyes and smiled dreamily.

"Yeah, it would. But I shouldn't be imagining this," he decided abruptly opening them again. "I'm most likely Muggle-born and they are working in some factory. I did come from a Muggle primary institute, after all."

"So did Harry and I, but we all know Harry is wizard-born," Hermione retorted. "And why shouldnâ€™t I be? I'm pretty good at magic, am I not?"

"That doesn't mean anything," Neville told her. "Anyone can be born with a lot of magical talent. That's just what Hogwarts institute is for: to make sure we all get the same education and chance to unfold our talents no matter how much our parents could or could not have helped us."

"Who cares about that anyway," Seamus pushed Hermione aside. "Parents are irrelevant and Neville is so good he'll be able to choose whichever glasshouse he likes anyway. Show us your mimbulus mumtonia, Neville. What can it do?"

"Mimbulus mimbletonia," Neville corrected once again, but he did show them, resulting in all of them being covered in stinking goo.

The only ones who thought that cool were the twins, Frederick and George, who begged Neville to let them borrow his new treasure for their experiments.

"No," Neville said hugging the ugly little potted plant protectively. "If you bring me a beaker I'll collect the stink sap for you, but you can't have my mimbulus mimbletonia."

"Oh please, Neville," Ron pleaded wiping the sap out of his eyes. "Let them have it. Anything so we don't have to put up with that in our dorm."

"Oh look, Harry!" Lavender shouted before Harry could intercede between Ron and Neville again. "Youâ€™re in the Daily Prophet again!"

Harry glared remembering the last article Rita Skeeter had written about him.

"What is it this time?" he asked Lavender.

"Oh, just some cock and bull story about someone having seen dementors hanging around the institute perimeter despite the ban," Parvati reported. "It's surprising that they were apparently sent in by an adult witch and not a student called Harry, is all they say about you."

"It doesn't sound that unreasonable to me," Hermione remarked. "They sent dementors to guard the institute once before, remember? And back then it was only Peter Pettigrew that was on the loose and not You-Know-Who himself. So why shouldn't the Ministry have set a guard on the institute again?"

"Because it didn't work that well and the dementors attacked you and Harry instead?" Neville suggested all the birthday-joy gone from his face now.

"And the Minister promised the headmaster never to bring dementors to the institute again?" Ron added.

"But he already broke that promise once," Harry pointed out. "No, the real reason is that the Ministry doesn't believe that You-Know-Who is back, and if he isn't we don't need protection."

"If he isn't Peter Pettigrew is still on the loose," Dean said.

"And if he is Peter Pettigrew is still on the loose as well, " Frederick added. "Either way the Ministry and the Aurors have to do something."

It was strange to see the twins look so serious, but also reassuring to hear that they believed him when the minister had not.

"Have you had any more visions of him?" George asked.

Harry shook his head.

"It's only been two days," he reminded them. "I suppose he hasn't done anything vision worthy in that time."

"The Daily Prophet certainly agrees with that," Lavender said. "It hasn't reported any attacks or killings at all. Are you really sure it wasn't just a bad dream, Harry?"

"The headmaster and the Professors and all the Aurors that were here for the third task went to check, remember?" Harry told her. "And they saw him kill Victor. How could he have abducted and killed Victor if he was just a dream?"

"But that's necromancy," Lavender protested. "And ... and ... everybody knows you can't raise the dead once they've passed through the veil."

Harry had no idea what to reply. He knew nothing about necromancy or any veil.

"Maybe he didn't?" George said. "There is no proof that You-know-who ever passed through the veil, is there? All we know is that he disappeared after he failed to kill Harry. It's generally assumed that he died, but there's no proof and even if you do die you can choose not to pass through the veil. That's why we have ghosts.

"So you think he's a ghost?" Harry asked a little doubtfully. He had looked quite substantial to him in his vision. All the ghosts he knew were pretty insubstantial and harmless.

"He might have been until that necromancy ritual brought him back," Parvati declared. "That would make sense."

It was a very scary thought, however.


	4. Chapter 4: Number Twelve Grimauld Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry contemplates indoors fountains and being alone.

Chapter 4: Number Twelve Grimauld Place

 

He was surrounded by a dense fog, alone in a huge building full of empty corridors, though he had no idea how he had gotten there or how he knew that there was a building or corridors at all. He couldn't see anything but the fog. Nevertheless he somehow knew which direction to go in, knew that he was crossing a wide hall, passing the fountain ...

What fountain? He was in a building with a fountain in it? But fountains belonged outside!

Still there was a fountain, a big fountain and it belonged there. It was integral to the building being what it was.

What was it? He was sure that he ought to know that much, but somehow he seemed to have misplaced that knowledge right now and there was no time to stop and think. He had to go and fulfil his task.

He passed the fountain, crossed the rest of the hall, stopped to wait for the little room that was moving by. He could not see or hear it, but he felt the vibrations as it arrived.

He entered it. It did not taste any different than the hall. That was strange. He had expected it to taste stale. Maybe it was the taste of the fog?

The small room descended slowly, much more slowly than he would have liked. He needed to get down to the lowest level.

At least it did not stop on the way. It was very annoying when these things stopped and if it did that meant that somebody else would enter the little room and then they'd see him and he'd have to kill them before they raised the alarm.

And then they'd find the body in the morning and increase their security measures.

Then the task would be harder tomorrow if he did not manage to find the thing today. He probably would not. The place was big and the thing small.

He could not complete the mission today, no. He was only scouting. It could not be this easy.

The little room stopped and he slid out. He was in the corridor now. Tunnels dug into the ground like a rabbit warren, but there were no rabbits here.

There should be nothing alive here this late in the night. Even if somebody was working late, they'd be on one of the higher levels. No, he was safe here. He was all alone. Alone meant safe.

Alone meant safe? How could that be? When had alone ever meant safe?

Always.

But when had he ever been alone? He had of course, but when had it been and where?

The complete darkness around him gave no answer so he lay still and thought about it.

When had he been alone? Not at the institute, that was for sure. His classmates, dorm-mates or friends were always with him and of course it had been the same at the primary institute and at the nursery institute, though he couldn't really remember the nursery institute.

That was too far back. The memory of being alone must be a more recent one.

He tried again.

He had been sort of alone in the maze even though the other champions had been there as well. He hadn't been able to see them and had had to make his way alone. But he hadn't been safe at all then!

He'd also been alone when he'd tried to rescue Ginevra from the basilisk and the tunnel had caved in cutting him off from Ron and Professor Lockhart. That had been very similar to what he'd just been doing, but it too hadn't been safe at all and he'd been so relieved when the professors had found him!

He'd also been alone in the forest when ... No, he hadn't been! He'd been with the centaur that had rescued him. With a centaur wasn't alone even if a centaur wasn't human.

And then Harry finally remembered. He'd been alone in the tunnel through which he'd snuck into Hogsmeade in his third year at the institute! He'd been alone and safe from detection. That's what he'd remembered in his dream. And yes, he realised now that he had been dreaming.

He wasn't in any strange fog in any strange big building with a fountain of all things in it. He was in his bed at Hogwarts Secondary Institute.

He opened his eyes, sat up and pulled the curtain that surrounded his bed apart. Bright light flooded through! It was time to get up. Hopefully he hadn't missed any classes. How strange that his dorm-mates hadn't woken him up!

No, wait, he couldn't miss any classes. The school year was over. Today was the exam day for the seventh years and the leaving feast and tomorrow would be the welcoming feast for the new first years. Classes would only resume the day after that, so it was perfectly fine to sleep in today.

"Come on, Harry!" Ron's voice shouted suddenly. Apparently he was still in the room and had noticed the curtains moving "Get up! It's your birthday. There'll be cake and presents!"

Oh yes! Right! Having your birthday on a feast day meant a celebration at breakfast. How could he have forgotten that?

Harry jumped out of bed eagerly the strange dream already forgotten.


	5. Chapter 5: The Order of the Phoenix

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry and Sirius' exchange of letters arouses some unwanted attention at both ends.

Chapter 5: The Order of the Phoenix

 

"And you've got a letter, too," Dean's voice announced from somewhere by the window. "That is your Hedwig, isn't it?"

"Oh, is it Harry's birthday letter?" Seamus asked excitedly.

"What?" Harry said incredulously. "It can't be. I'm turning fifteen, not sixteen."

"Well, it is a letter for you in any case," Dean reported as he took a letter off Hedwig's leg. "And on your birthday. That does make it a kind of birthday letter, doesn't it?"

Harry quickly went over to Dean before the other boy could notice anything suspicious about it.

"Who's it from?" Neville promptly asked, though.

"Oh ... er ... I don't know yet," Harry said hastily. "I haven't opened it yet after all."

"Well then open it!" Seamus pushed.

"It's probably Auror Black's reply," Ron announced to Harry's horror.

"You wrote to an Auror Harry?" Neville asked wide-eyed.

"Uh ... er ... yes," Harry admitted. After all what could he do after Ron had already given it away? "He's the nice one of the two Aurors that were here in third year."

"The ones that broke Ron's leg?" Dean asked incredulously.

"Yes, but like Harry said, he's the nice one," Ron explained. "He apologised to me, you know, and gave me Pigwidgeon."

"He likes children," Harry explained. "So he doesn't mind getting a letter from us every once in a while."

"So you wrote to him about You-Know-Who?" Neville asked.

Harry snatched at the excuse eagerly.

"Yes," he claimed. "I want to know what the Aurors are doing about it."

"Why then read it and tell us!" Seamus demanded.

"Well, I can't very well read it if you keep asking me questions," Harry told them and they settled down and looked at him expectantly.

So Harry felt he had no choice but to sit down on his bed and read the letter. Hopefully it would have some innocent enough information about Auror activities that would satisfy their curiosity.

'Dear Harry,' it read. 'I was relieved and delighted to receive your letter, but it almost got me into trouble when Dawlish saw me receive it. You'd think I could get owls from whoever pleases to write to me, but no, not at work, he claims. He did come to me again later, though, and told me in private that he only did it to warn me that it might be bad for my career to be known to be exchanging letters with you, because it appears that the Minister has it in for you and all your friends right now. Fudge refuses to believe a word of what happened at the third task and wants you discredited.

How that is to stop Voldemort Dawlish has no more clue than I or, I expect, you do, but he said if I can find a way to hide my connection with you, he can put me in contact with other fine wizards who do believe you and intend to do something about it. For security's sake please address all future letters to me to 12 Grimauld Place, which is my private address. This will result in a delay of your owl when I am not at home, but I have a comfortable owlery for her to wait in and will have more leisure to read and reply in my spare time.'

"Oh my," Harry told his dorm-mates "The Minister still doesn't believe that You-Know-Who is back and I think he's saying that he could be fired if someone sees him getting an owl from me, just because I saw the truth."

"Fired?" Ron gasped. "Does he say that you shouldn't have written him after all?"

"No, just that I should write to him at his home so the Minister won't see."

"So the Ministry is doing nothing?" Neville asked a little worriedly. "Nothing at all?"

"No," Harry reported. "But some of the Aurors do believe the truth and theyâ€™re going to get together and do something."

But as he continued to read Harry's heart sank even further. His secret uncle Sirius didn't believe that Auror Potter was a traitor. He'd asked him about his forbidden presence at the third task and Auror Potter had claimed that he had wanted to see the third task so much that he had asked the Minister for special permission to go and had been granted it.

Of course that was a brilliant lie, because Uncle Sirius couldn't just go and ask the Minister whether it was true or else the Minister would ask Uncle Sirius how he knew about it in the first place and then Uncle Sirius would be fired for getting owls from Harry.

For just a moment Harry actually hoped that his secret uncle would ask anyway. After all stopping You-Know-Who was hugely important, but of course it could never be as important as keeping one's job.

"Oh, but he's sure to take Auror Potter along to that meeting and then it'll all be in vain. The Death Eaters will know exactly what the Aurors are planning against them."

"Auror Potter?" Dean asked. "Who's that and what does he have to do with anything?"

"He's Auror Black's Auror partner," Harry explained. "The nasty Auror. And I'm sure he's a Death Eater, but Auror Black won't believe me."

"If he's an Auror he can't be a Death Eater," Seamus assured Harry. "Aurors exist to catch Death Eaters and put them in Azkaban."

"He could be a double agent, though," Ron said. "A Death Eater pretending to be an Auror."

"He is," Harry nodded decidedly. "I'm sure of it."


	6. Chapter 6: The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Petunia is not pleased by Harry's latest report.

Chapter 6: The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black

 

The birthday letter arrived at the normal time again this year as Petunia Dursley Evans noticed with satisfaction She let the bird in through the window and untied the letter from his leg with shaking fingers.

The owl hooted at her encouragingly which almost led to her dropping the letter, and departed again as soon as he was free. Petunia hastily stepped back to avoid being hit by the animal's rather impressive looking wings, drew a relieved breath and closed the window again.

Then she made herself a cup of tea and settled down to read. Harry's birthday picture was quite satisfactory, she decided. His hair remained awfully untidy, of course, but he clearly had grown nicely, his robe was neat and tidy and the glasses were beginning to look smart rather than ridiculous on him.

Yes, her nephew was growing into a young man, just like her son. They'd both turn out well. She was sure of that.

Petunia looked for his grade sheet next, but couldn't find it right away. She must have accidentally turned over two sheets at once, she thought, but since she already held the medical report in her hand she read that first.

It seemed rather longer than usual which was worrying. In the picture Harry looked perfectly healthy, but what if he had developed some chronic condition that wasn't immediately apparent?

But no. He had suffered burns when facing a dragon in the 'first task'. What sort of tasks did that horrible school set its poor little students? Surely fire-breathing dragons were much too dangerous to let fourteen year olds anywhere near them! Didn't wizards care for their children's safety at all?

At least according to the report Harry had recovered very quickly so his injury couldn't have been all that serious.

But just a little lower on the page there was another entry that made Petunia gasp. Harry had been kept in the hospital wing overnight because he had been traumatised by having a vision of the evil wizard Voldemort who had murdered Harry's parents, returning back to life and then seeing the dead body of a fellow student who had been killed by none other than the revived Lord Voldemort and as if that hadn't been enough, Harry had then been abducted by an agent of said Lord Voldemort who had been masquerading as a trusted teacher.

How could the institute have let that happen? Wasn't the very reason for children being raised in institutes that the experts there should ensure their safe and healthy development?

Of course nothing like that had ever happened to Dudley and now that she thought about it hadn't there been some incident of that kind mentioned in every one of Harry's birthday letters since he had been transferred to a secondary institute Petunia and her husband hadn't even chosen for him?

Hadn't Harry been attacked by a treacherous teacher once before in his first year?

Then in his second year he had been forced to find a younger student that had been attacked by some monster called a basilisk. How could that have gotten into the institute and grabbed a first year? Where had the teachers been that a second year had felt forced to take the rescue mission into his own hands?

In Harry's third year he had been attacked by an escaped convict, a mass murderer no less!

And now dragons, visions of murderers, abductions and dead bodies in an institute for children! If that was what happened to one boy at that institute in four years, then what horrors did the entirety of the student body go through in seven? How many students died before they were old enough to leave? How many ended their education sooner than they would have liked to out of fear for their lives?

More automatically than deliberately Petunia picked up the next sheet and continued to read.

Harryâ€™s development wasn't quite satisfactory because he had trouble focussing on the essential if faced with several tasks or objects of interest? Why, how could anyone be expected to focus if they had to fear being attacked by dragons, murderers or their own teachers at any moment?

Petunia shook her head at that nonsense and moved on to the next sheet which finally informed her why she hadn't found the grade sheet earlier. Not that she still cared about grades after what she had read about the institute's safety. Harry had been entered in a tournament intended for the very best seventeen year old students? A tournament in which students had been killed in the past? And there had been no way out of a contract Harry had neither signed nor was old enough to sign? Why hadn't she been informed of that? Wouldn't she have had to give her permission?

She certainly wouldn't have! Harry was all she had left of her parents and sister! To think that she might lose him to something as useless as a sports event!

When Vernon Dursley came home that evening he found his wife sitting at the computer surrounded by pages upon pages of old-fashioned parchment, a full cup of tea standing cold and forgotten on the kitchen table.

"Vernon, you have to help me!" Petunia said instead of greeting him as usual. "We have to get them to transfer Harry to Smeltings. Hogwarts just isn't safe. And we chose Smeltings for him! They had no right to send him elsewhere. I'm sure if Lily were alive to see how dangerous the place has become she would never want her son to stay there either."

"Dangerous?" Vernon asked confused. "What is dangerous?"

"Dragons, convicts, murderers masquerading as teachers and monsters running about inside the institute, Vernon!"

It took a while before Vernon got her to give him clearly understandable information, but once he did he was in his element. He'd always loved enforcing his will against that of others. He'd show those wizards!


	7. Chapter 7: The Ministry of Magic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry overhears a confusing conversation.

Chapter 7: The Ministry of Magic

 

It was impossible to read in peace in Gryffindor Tower that day. It was raining outside spoiling all outdoor fun and the Great Hall, the usual place students went to to play games and talk indoors was off limits because the house-elves were busy preparing it for the leaving feast. Since it was leaving feast day however, everybody's exams were over and nobody had any studying or homework to do, so all Gryffindors were hanging around in the tower being bored.

Normally Harry wouldn't have minded, but he'd gotten a new book for his birthday: The Queerest Mishaps in Quidditch History, and he really wanted to read it, not have to answer questions on what he was reading or what he was laughing about every few seconds.

Of course he could have saved the book for another day, but then he'd only be bored now and lessons would start again the day after tomorrow. So eventually he simply grabbed the book and his invisibility cloak and left the tower in search of some hidden nook to read in.

He was just contemplating the space between the wall and the gargoyle that guarded the headmaster's office when that very gargoyle jumped aside and the headmaster, Professor McGonagall and a wizard Harry didn't know came out. He would have ignored them, but just then the unknown wizard spoke up.

"I'd have thought you'd give it to little Harry. That would have shown confidence in him considering how the Ministry and the Daily Prophet are going on about him."

"They already know I have confidence in Harry," Professor Dumbledore retorted. "There is nothing to be gained from that move."

"It might draw James closer to our side," Professor McGonagall suggested.

"He is bound by his association with Harry anyway," the headmaster dismissed that idea. "Giving it to Ron will please the Weasleys, though, especially Molly. You know that I am unsure of Percy's loyalty. Cornelius has made a clear attempt at buying him away from us by offering him that position."

"His family's too important to him to betray us," Professor McGonagall brushed that argument away. "All that Fudge has achieved is to give us a valuable spy in his own office. Ron is too irresponsible. He'd abuse his authority for his own advantage and neglect his duties."

"Harry is no more responsible than Ron," Professor Dumbledore argued. "And less intelligent. Besides, I do not want him to have too much knowledge of our moves. The less he is aware of the better both for him and our cause."

"Perhaps there is a third option?" The unknown wizard suggested. "Surely there are more than two boys in that dorm?"

There was a pause and the adults sped up a little which took them out of earshot. Harry hesitated for only a moment before he ran after them. He had no idea what the conversation was actually about, but it appeared to concern him and his best friend. And what was that about Percy? Was the former Gryffindor prefect really spying on his employer? Didn't he realise how dishonest and dangerous that was? If he was caught he'd probably be fired with bad references. And he might go to Azkaban for industrial espionage. Then nobody would ever hire him again and he'd have no chance to be productive anymore.

Or was it less dangerous if one did it at the ministry? There were no industrial secrets to be found there, Harry assumed, but on the other hand the ministry was really important. He sincerely hoped that Percy knew what he was doing.

"The Longbottom boy might be an option," Professor McGonagall said finally. "I think he's had only one detention in all his time here and that in his first year, so it would be hard for anyone to claim that he isn't deserving."

"Hmmm ..." hummed the headmaster. "The Longbottom boy. I donâ€™t think I've ever noticed him at all. He must be a very plain, quiet little thing."

"He is a good boy. An average and diligent student," Professor McGonagall reported. "With quite some talent in Herbology according to Pomona."

Were they talking about Neville?

"Nothing to be hoped for from his parents," the headmaster mused. "But there are a number of more distant relatives and the support of Augusta Longbottom might count for something. I'll think about it."

"It won't strengthen our position in the ministry, though," the unknown wizard remarked.

"We aren't trying to take over the ministry," Professor McGonagall snapped. "Our mission is to defeat You-Know-Who."

"Of whom we've seen and heard nothing in a week," the stranger said. "Aren't we supposed to have spies there as well? What do they report?"

"Severus says he is lying low to lull the ministry into a false sense of safety and make plans. He is working on something, but he hasn't confided it in his Death Eaters yet as far as we can tell. We have to be patient."

"Severus," the stranger snorted.

"He is the best agent we have," the headmaster retorted. "Absolutely reliable, intelligent, well placed and a most competent occlumens. You do realise what would happen if we tried to place another agent that high in the Death Eater hierarchy? If his shields should falter in Voldemort's presence only once ..."

So the headmaster had agents both in he ministry and among the Death Eaters? But why? Shouldn't he and the ministry be on the same side?

It was awfully confusing. Of course Harry understood that the Death Eaters were on the bad side, but which one was the good one if there were three, and what in the world was there besides good and evil?


	8. Chapter 8: The Hearing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: It's time for the leaving feast, but where are Harry's friends?

Chapter 8: The Hearing

 

Harry eventually found a comfortable and light enough spot in a curtained off alcove where he read until his giggling attracted the notice of Mrs Norris, the caretaker's cat. Harry wasn't actually doing anything forbidden. After all there were no classes today, he wasn't supposed to be in bed and he wasn't doing magic or anything that would cost anyone money.

Still, with Mrs Norris' accusing eyes on him he began to feel guilty and he was wearing an invisibility-cloak. The cloak was legally his, a perfectly normal Christmas gift he had received four years ago, but nevertheless it might be considered proof of some evil intent if he was caught with it.

Harry decided not to take the risk and left before Mrs Norris could alert Mr. Filch. He'd probably find some more time to read in bed after the feast tonight.

He returned to the common-room, the most innocent place Mr. Filch could possibly find him in, to spend some time with his friends, but neither Ron nor Hermione was anywhere to be seen. Strange. Boys and girls weren't allowed to enter each other's dorms so none of the three spent all that much of their waking hours there. Maybe they had gone to the library? Ron didn't like the place, but Hermione loved it and might have dragged him along. Harry considered looking there, but he might still be caught by Mr. Filch on the way. Better to leave the invisibility cloak in the dorm. Then he could make sure that Ron really wasn't in there at the same time.

Ron wasn't, but Neville was sitting by his trunk sorting through his school supplies.

"Hey Neville," Harry said as he dumped the cloak into his own trunk. "Have you seen Ron and Hermione?"

Neville looked up at him.

"Oh, didn't you hear?" he asked. "Professor McGonagall sent for them earlier."

Harry shook his head feeling quite perplexed. What could Professor McGonagall want with them this close to the leaving feast?

"I wasn't here," he explained. "I was ... out to read something." Let Neville assume that he meant he'd been in the library. "Did she say why? We haven't dome anything bad."

Neville shook his head.

"She just sent Colin to tell them to come to her office. They didn't ask him why and I doubt he knew," he said. "And he didn't ask for you either, so if they've done something wrong they must have done it without you."

That made no sense at all. Hermione never did anything bad if Harry didn't talk her into it first and he couldn't remember Ron ever getting in trouble without him before either.

He went back downstairs to wait for them in the common room where he'd see them the moment they stepped through the portrait hole. Surely they'd have to come back in time to go to the feast with him!

But when everybody else started leaving they still weren't there and Harry reluctantly joined his other dorm-mates to go to the Great Hall.

"Maybe they went straight down and are already waiting for us," Neville tried to reassure Harry. "Surely they won't miss the feast."

"The last time Professor McGonagall called Hermione to her office she reappeared unconscious at the bottom of the lake," Harry remembered.

"But the tournament is over," Neville argued, though he did look a little worried now. "There isn't any task scheduled that they could be part of. Besides the hostages werenâ€™t hurt, were they? They just slept through it all."

But Harry didn't calm down and when they arrived in the Great Hall Neville was proven wrong. Ron and Hermione weren't there.

"They'll come, you'll see," Neville promised.

And they did. Just before the feast started they walked into the hall wearing their shining new prefect badges.

Harry stared at them open-mouthed. Surely nobody would choose Ron as prefect over him!

"Prefect?" he gasped. "You?"

"Well, why ever not?" Hermione demanded. "I have the best grades in our year and am an exemplary student in every way."

"Why yes," Harry said a little annoyed at being misunderstood. "Of corse you were the obvious choice, but Ron? What's Ron ever done that's so ... so ... exemplary?"

"What?" Ron demanded "You weren't seriously expecting they'd pick YOU!"

Harry blushed. He'd done it again. He'd thought he was special. Of course he didnâ€™t deserve to be a prefect with that horrible flaw in his character!

"No, no," he denied his mistake hastily. "Of course not me! Iâ€™m much too bad! I thought ... I thought ..." Oh, one shouldn't lie, but he could not admit to having actually expected something that was so obviously undeserved in the eyes of his friends. He desperately needed a more plausible candidate. And then he remembered the conversation he'd overheard earlier that day. "I thought it'd be Neville. He's had only one detention in all the time we've been at the institute and ... and he does study more than we do, too. Surely Neville deserves to be prefect."

"He's worse than me at Transfigurations and Potions," Ron pointed out.

"But better in Herbology," Harry returned angrily.

This wasn't fair! His best friends were both, no, all three as a quick longing glance at the Slytherin table informed him, prefects and he was left out.

"And in Charms as well," Hermione added unexpectedly. "Harry is right. Neville would have been a more likely candidate than you. I suppose they like the prefects to be friends, though, and that gave Ron a few extra points over Neville."

Or maybe, Harry thought to himself angrily, they wanted to please 'the Weasleys, especially Molly' whoever those might be.


	9. Chapter 9: The Woes of Mrs Weasley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Hermione shows off her trophy.

Chapter 9: The Woes of Mrs Weasley

 

The leaving feast was unusually subdued this year, perhaps because of Professor Dumbledore's speech in which he explained that they were not just saying good bye to those of their number who had completed their education and were now heading out into the world to hopefully have long and productive lives of usefulness, but also to their new friends from Beauxbattons and Durmstrang who would return to their home countries most likely never to visit again and most of all to Victor Krum whose so very promising young life had been cruelly cut short by You-Know-Who. That, the headmaster explained was a tragedy they all had to keep in their minds now that You-Know-Who had returned to threaten the wizarding world once again.

"But what can we do?" Harry asked his friends. They were prefects now after all. "We are only children. What can we do to fight an adult?"

"Well, I don't know about an adult as powerful as You-Know-Who himself," Hermione replied pulling a glass jar out of her pocket. "But we will turn sixteen soon. After that adulthood won't be so far away. And as for right now ..."

She put the jar on the table and looked at them triumphantly.

"Do you see what I have got here?" she asked when they both only looked at her expectantly.

"A fat beetle," Ron stated unimpressed.

"That," Hermione announced proudly. "Is Rita Skeeter in her unregistered animagus shape. I defeated her all alone even though I am only a child. So maybe once I am an adult and with the help of some other adults I will be able to take on even You-Know-Who ... or at last a Death Eater or two."

It sounded like rather tall talk to Harry, but perhaps Hermione had a point. Maybe once they were adults some tasks wouldn't look quite as impossible as they did now. They didn't have to start by taking on You-Know-Who himself after all. With a little luck they might not have to because he'd already be defeated and safely kept in Azkaban by the time they left the institute.

It was only later, after the feast, that Harry thought to wonder what Hermione would do with her prisoner. Surely she'd already been missed by her employers at the Daily Prophet and the Aurors had been alerted. Surely capturing an adult in a jar was wrong. What would happen to Hermione once the other adults found out? He'd have to discuss it with her in the morning.


	10. Chapter 10: Luna Lovegood

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry's just passing the time while Hermione and Ron are busy, but perhaps he should pay a little more attention to what that weird girl is saying.

Chapter 10: Luna Lovegood

 

"Why, if she tells how I caught her she must admit to being an unregistered animagus," Hermione told Harry calmly. "And if she writes another article about us Iâ€™ll just tell the ministry myself."

"I'm sure kidnapping an adult is a worse crime than being an animagus," Harry tried to explain his worries.

"Well, I can't keep her forever," Hermione declared. "Or kill her. That would be worse. I have to let her go and she doesn't want to lose her best way of gaining information. I suppose I could wait until after my birthday so I'd be closer to being an adult as well, but then she'd have to explain a longer absence. No, I'll go and do it now. You don't have to come along if you don't want to."

After some reflection Harry decided that he didn't. The less he had to do with this the better and Hermione was hardly likely to need any help opening a jar.

So while Hermione and Ron headed up the Astronomy tower Harry went down to the Great Hall to see how the preparations for the feast were coming along and maybe hang out with Draco, Vincent and Gregory.

The house-elves shooed him away from the Great Hall however and the Slytherins were nowhere to be seen. Harry was just about to return to Gryfindor Tower and sit in the common room until his friends returned when he heard someone call out to him.

"Why are you all alone?" Ginevra asked from her half-hidden seat on a windowsill. "Where are Ron and Hermione?"

"Oh they went up the Ast ... to the library," Harry lied hastily. "I was going to meet some other friends here, but they didn't come."

"He means they've gone up the Astronomy tower to snog and didn't want him to watch," the girl sitting next to Ginevra announced.

"No they didn't! They don't snog!" Harry returned indignantly.

"Yes they do," the girl insisted calmly. "But that's alright. You can tell us. We won't tell. We don't care."

"That's Luna," Ginevra explained. "We were dormmates at the primary institute, but she's in Ravenclaw now."

"Okay," Harry said wondering why Ginevra expected him to care. Luna didn't seem like a particularly pleasant person to him.

"Have you seen her yet?" Luna asked.

"Her? Her who?"

"Why, Professor Umbridge, of course," Ginevra explained. "The new DADA professor. We saw her earlier when she was floating her luggage in. I think she looks nice. She has kitten-plates."

"She has what?" It didn't sound at all nice to Harry.

"Plates with pictures of kittens on them," Ginevra explained. "As wall decorations. I like kittens."

"That doesn't necessarily make her nice," Harry remembered, though he did hope that she was. He was bad at Defence Against the Dark Arts, after all, and unfriendly teachers tended to scold him assuming that he simply wasn't making an effort.

"She's not nice," Luna announced. "She looks like a toad."

"That doesn't mean that she can't be nice," Harry pointed out.

"I know," Luna said. "But she isn't. She's a spy."

"A Death Eater?" Harry gasped.

"No, an under-secretary," Luna replied calmly.

"A what?" Ginevra asked.

"A senior under-secretary," Luna supplied readily. "Of the minister. The headmaster didn't want her, but the minister made him take her anyway. Maybe he didn't want her either."

"How do you know?" Harry asked. "Did you overhear the teachers talking?"

"No, I'm not a sneak. But you are, aren't you?"

"What? Of course not! And I never said you were. What I meant was did you happen to hear the teachers say that when you happened to be passing by?"

"And I said I didn't. I just know."

"Luna has the sight," Ginevra explained. "Only she can't control it all that well, yet. She just sees things at random, like you do in your dreams."

"They are not random," Luna said. "And they aren't dreams."

"Obviously not," Harry agreed. Luna was clearly awake after all and she also must have been when Professor Umbridge had floated her kitten-plates past her and Ginevra.

"You shouldn't listen to them," Luna told him. "He is trying to trick you."

"Who is?" Harry asked completely at sea.

"Why he is, of course. The headmaster knows, but he doesn't want to tell you, because he doesn't want him to know."

Harry shook his head and decided to ignore it. At least Luna's predictions were less unpleasant than Professor Trellawney's, even if they were more confusing. Or were they predictions at all? From the way Luna spoke she saw the present and past, but not the future. Shouldn't a proper seer be seeing the future?

But what about him and his dreams then? They were visions of the present as well, but Madam Pomfrey had called it seeing. He'd have to ask Professor Trellawney.

But of course that would have to wait until the next Divination lesson. Right now he had to get rid of Luna, find Ron and Hermione and get ready for the welcoming feast. There'd be a sorting and ice cream and cake and then he'd be a fifth year. Wasn't that much more exciting and important than what a seer could and couldn't see?


	11. Chapter 11: The Sorting Hat's New Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: There are a lot of things Harry doesn't understand in this chapter. Hermione understands some of it, but unfortunately she doesn't get a chance to explain.

Chapter 11: The Sorting Hat's New Song

 

The welcoming feast was of course much more interesting than the leaving feast the day before had been. There were the new students to be sorted, the sorting hat's new song to listen to and the new Professor to be looked at.

Harry's eyes went straight to the head table to get a good look at her, but then something else drew his attention.

"Where's Professor Hagrid?" he asked his friends. "His seat is empty."

"Maybe one of his creatures is sick?" Ron suggested.

"But Professor Grubbly-Plank is here," Hermione noticed. "I suppose Professor Hagrid himself must be sick."

"Oh I hope so," Neville said. "Her classes are much nicer."

"What do you think of Professor Umbridge? Does she look competent to you?" Hermione asked him.

"I don't know," Neville hedged.

"Her clothes don't make her look like much of a fighter," George commented.

"And she seems to be awfully short," Frederick added.

"But looks can be deceiving," George finished. "Let's wait and see what she's like in class."

There was no time for further speculations anyway, because the first years were arriving and lining up in the front of the hall. Professor Flitwick brought the sorting hat and it sang the strangest song Harry had ever heard from it finishing with the statement that it considered the sorting itself wrong even though that was its job.

Excited whispering broke out among the students.

"Does that mean that it doesn't feel productive?" Harry asked his friends.

"I guess not," Ron said with a shrug. "But it's a hat. Who knows how hats feel and what they need to be happy."

"It might feel more productive if it were actually worn," Neville suggested. "That's what hats are for after all."

"But didn't you hear what it actually meant?" Hermione demanded. "We shouldn't be divided into houses of different temperaments and skills. Only if ..."

But just then the actual sorting began and she fell silent to watch little Anthony number nine stumble up to the hat and be sorted into Hufflepuff.

By the time all the new students had been sorted Harry had long forgotten the song and was only looking forward to the delicious food. Luckily the headmaster once again postponed his speech until after they had eaten and they all could dig in right away. It was much easier to listen to a long list of dos and don'ts on a full stomach, though that didn't help when Professor Umbridge got up to make a speech of her own that didn't seem to be saying anything at all, though Hermione seemed to be getting some information out of it. Or at least she followed it with rapt attention.

Harry decided to ask her about it on the way back to Gryffindor tower after the feast, but he had forgotten to consider her new office as a prefect. The moment the headmaster gave them leave to rise she got up and started calling for the first years. This reminded Ron of his duties as well and Harry was left trailing after their line and feeling a little lost without his usual companions.

Oh well, he could always join his other dorm-mates and ask Hermione about Professor Umbridge's speech in the morning ... or whenever she didn't have any prefect duties to attend to. He was just about to slip past the first years to look for Neville, Seamus and Dean when Professor McGonagall and two wizards in Auror robes suddenly appeared on the stairs behind them.

"Hermione!" the professor called out loudly and sharply. "Please come down here for a moment, Hermione."

Everybody stopped and looked back at the three adults in confusion, but after a moment of looking puzzled Hermione started to wind her way down through the row of first years.

"The rest of you go right on ahead to the common room," Professor McGonagall shouted. "First years, just follow Prefect Ron. He can explain everything just as well as Prefect Hermione."

Harry had his doubts about that, but supposed that there wasn't much Ron could mess up in leading the younger students to the hidden entrance to Gryffindor tower and telling them the password. Then they'd be tired and would want to know where they were supposed to sleep. That wasn't a difficult question either.

Indeed Ron didn't seem to be worried at all.

"Come along, kids!" he called out to his charges and the row started moving again.

"What's this about?" Harry asked Hermione as she passed him.

She merely shrugged at him. "Go ahead. I'll catch up."

And so Harry did.

They reached Gryffindor tower without any further unusual events, Ron opened the portrait hole and then started to lead the first year boys up to the dormitories.

"What about us?" one of the little girls called after him. "Where do we go?"

"You'll have to wait for Hermione," Ron called back to her. "We boys are not allowed in the girls' dorms."

"But I'm tired!" another girl whined.

"Why, where is Hermione?" Lavender asked. "It's not at all like her to abandon her duty."

"Professor McGonagall wanted her for some reason," Harry explained. "She said she'd catch up, but apparently it's taking longer than expected."

"Oh well," Lavender said. "If all they need is to be shown the way to their dorm I can do it. I know where it is. Come on first years, I'll take you to your beds and Hermione will explain everything else in the morning."


	12. Chapter 12: Professor Umbridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Hermione has disappeared and Professor Umbridge has a very unusual way of starting the year.

Chapter 12: Professor Umbridge

 

For some strange reason Hermione was nowhere to be found the next morning and finally Harry and Ron went down to breakfast without her.

"We haven't seen her at all since the feast," Lavender told Harry. "She never came in yesterday evening and when we woke up she wasn't stirring, so I thought she'd overslept after her long talk with the professor and pulled open the curtains of her bed to wake her, but she wasn't there and the bed was neatly made, not at all like she'd gotten so awfully sick that she'd gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the hospital wing. At first I thought maybe she'd gotten up early and already left, but now she isn't here either."

"I suppose she must have already felt sick when she returned from her talk with Professor McGonagall. Then she would have gone straight to Madam Pomfrey without ever getting into her bed and that's why it's still made," Parvati decided. "We can go and visit her in the hospital wing during break if she doesn't show up for classes, but I think we definitely should wait until after our first lesson. Hermione would never miss a class if she isn't really sick."

But of course Madam Pomfrey wasn't one to let a student out of her care until she was completely sure she was healthy, so when Hermione wasn't in History of Magic they didn't worry all that much.

Professor Binns droned on and on about Giant Wars which was at least a change from Goblin Wars, but no less boring. Harry and Ron soon fell into a drowsy stupor and remembered too late that with Hermione off nobody would have taken any notes they could borrow to study from.

"Well, there has to be something about it in the book," Ron assured Harry. "And if there isn't it must be in one of the library books. Or else we can ask Professor Hagrid. He's half-giant after all."

But Professor Hagrid wasn't teaching and they had to get to Potions.

Professor Snape gave them a long speech on the importance of OWLs and his high expectations and then set them a typical OWL potion to work on. Harry soon realised that OWL level meant a lot more difficult than he was used to. He forgot an ingredient and received no marks at all, but none of the students whose potions he got to see had gotten it entirely right. Of course, exams weren't important, but what happened to people who failed all their OWLs?

"Well, you can repeat the year," Frederick told him reassuringly at lunch.

"And try again," George added.

"And if you fail again?" Harry asked glumly, because really, the task seemed impossible to him.

"I think then you have to get some simple non-magical job," Frederick offered.

"Like gardener or cleaner," George supplied. "It's not well-paid, but still useful."

Harry nodded feeling reassured. He didn't like the idea of being a cleaner all that much, but gardener didn't sound all that bad. Gardeners grew flowers and vegetables. That seemed to be productive enough to be satisfactory.

Over all that worrying he'd forgotten that he'd meant to visit Hermione in the hospital wing during the break, though and had to go on to Divination without having seen her.

"She isn't there anyway," Parvati told him when they were waiting to climb the ladder into the classroom. "Madam Pomfrey knew nothing about her at all."

"So she's at St. Mungo's?" Harry asked worriedly, but Parvati and Lavender were on the ladder by then and they both liked Divination way too much to talk during a lesson.

So Harry and Ron tried to focus on dream interpretation despite their worry about their friend.

"Well, at least this is very important for you," Ron pointed out in a weak attempt at motivation. "You do have prophetic dreams after all."

That reminded Harry of Luna and he would have asked Professor Trellawney about dreams showing the present if he hadn't been much more interested in what was wrong with Hermione.

"Did Madam Pomfrey say what's wrong with her?" he asked Lavender on the way to Defence against the Dark Arts. It had to be something very serious if the nurse couldn't fix it herself.

"No, she didn't even know that Hermione is sick until we told her. She said to ask Professor McGonagall," Lavender replied. "And we didn't want to run to her when there was so little time left before Divination. We'll ask her after our last lesson, if Hermione isn't back by then."

Harry felt very worried now. Why would they have rushed Hermione straight to St. Mungo's without even consulting the school nurse first? Could it be that she wasn't sick, but actually dead? But who would have killed her inside the institute? Harry felt pretty sure that they'd have heard about it if another teacher had turned out to be an agent of You-Know-Who and been arrested, but was it possible that some other Death Eater had managed to sneak in, kill Hermione and be arrested or escape without the news leaking to the students?

He almost turned around and ran to Professor McGonagall himself right then and there, but he was already in Professor Umbridge's classroom by the time he'd thought that far and he didn't think she'd be very accepting of such behaviour. She seemed to be very keen on outward demonstrations of discipline and respect.

The new Professor started her first lesson in a very unusual way telling them the goals of her subject and making them copy them. Nobody had ever mentioned any goals before! But after that they spent the rest of the lesson reading the course-book quietly. They really could have done that just as well for homework Harry thought angrily watching the minutes tick by ever so slowly while he was longing to be on his way to Professor McGonagall.


	13. Chapter 13: Detention with Dolores

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: No detention for this Harry who is so much less inclined to question authority, but the beginning of this schoolyear really is quite a headache for him anyway.

Chapter 13: Detention with Dolores

 

Finally, finally, the end of the lesson came and Harry, Ron, Parvati and Lavender were free to race to Professor McGonagall's office. They'd overlooked only one detail in their haste. The professor had only just finished a lesson as well and had been in no hurry to leave the classroom. They had to wait.

"Where is Hermione!" Lavender burst out without even remembering to greet the professor first when the Transfigurations teacher finally appeared in the corridor.

"Why Lavender!" Professor McGonagall scolded promptly. "Where are your manners!"

"Good evening, Professor," Parvati managed much more properly, though Harry could see how much she was fidgeting while he, Ron and Lavender added their own greetings. "Do you have a moment to talk with us?"

"Of course,Parvati," the Professor said and unlocked the door for them. "Do come inside."

She even transfigured an extra chair so they could all sit.

"So, what can I do for you?" she asked once they had all sat down properly.

"Well, it's Hermione, Professor," Parvati continued to act as their spokesperson.

For a moment Harry felt uncomfortable with her taking the lead, but then he realised that it was indeed much more proper for one of the girls to act as the leader in this situation. They were Hermione's dorm-mates after all and should be the first to miss her.

"She never returned to the dorm after the feast yesterday," Parvati explained. "And she wasn't in our classes today either. We asked Madam Pomfrey, but she isn't in the hospital wing. Do you know where she is?"

Professor McGonagall pressed her lips together tightly for a moment, but then replied after all.

"Yes, I do," she confirmed. "But I would prefer it if you didn't spread it around. I'm sure that it is all a mistake and that she will be back soon."

"A mistake?" Harry asked. "What is a mistake? Is she in St. Mungo's? Can we visit her there?"

"No Harry, she is not in St. Mungo's. She is not sick, so there is no need to worry."

"Not sick?" Lavender exclaimed. "But then where is she?"

Professor McGonagall sighed.

"No, she is not sick. Somebody has brought criminal charges against her, but as I already said, I'm sure it is all a mistake. I don't know the details, but Auror Tonks, one of the Aurors who came to arrest her, said that ... well, she believes that Hermione caught some small animal out of curiosity and it happened to be an unregistered animagus who has brought the charges against her. Now obviously there is no way that Hermione can be held responsible for not recognising an unregistered animagus as a wizard, so she is sure to be found innocent and to be returned to the institute right after the trial. She will miss a few days of classes, however, so if you want to do something kind for her, take extra-good notes and copy them for her. I am sure she would appreciate that very much."

"Or more likely complain about our handwriting and that they are not detailed enough," Ron muttered.

Parvati and Lavender were reassured by Professor McGonagall's information, but Harry wasn't in the least. This was all Rita Skeeter's doing, of course, and how would the Wizengamot react when they found out that Hermione had indeed known that the beetle she'd caught was actually a witch? Could one be given the Dementor's kiss for that?

He returned to the common-room feeling quite distressed and not even the latest letter from his secret uncle Sirius could cheer him up. In fact once he had read it it made everything even worse. Uncle Sirius had joined some secret organisation that was working to protect the wizarding world against You-Know-Who that called itself the Order of the Phoenix. That much would have been welcome news, but Uncle Sirius was now intending to recruit Auror Potter, the Death Eater spy, as well.

Harry wrote a hasty reply once again begging him not to trust Auror Potter and rushed to the owlery to send it off right away, almost tripping over a passed out first year on the common room floor on the way in his haste. Apparently Frederic and George were running a big product test this evening.

Sirius Black didn't believe Harry's warnings, though and the days went by without any news of Hermione. In almost every lesson they had that week their professors gave them dire warnings about the difficulty of OWLs and as if that weren't enough to worry about Professor Flitwick told them that it was time that they started thinking about what they wanted to do with their lives as they were also to have career advice that year. They ought to already have a clear job idea going into that, he said.

So Harry tried to think about what sort of things he was good at, but he only came up with things he was bad or mediocre at and all he knew for sure was that he wanted to be useful and productive. That probably would be ensured in whatever wizarding career he chose, though.

He tried to discuss it with Ron, but his best friend was entirely focussed on Quiddich these days. With Oliver leaving the institute the positions of keeper and team captain had opened up. The later had already been given to Angelina as the most experienced and reliable of the remaining team members, but Ron was determined to try out for keeper.

So Harry resolved to pay extra attention to how well he compared to others in his classes and take notes on that. Perhaps the career adviser would know what to choose based on those. His first attempt in the next Transfigurations lesson left him without a result however. Nobody managed to cast a successful vanishing spell. And how was he even supposed to measure performance in Care for Magical Creatures when all they did was to stare at a bunch of moving twigs that were called Bowtrucles?

It really was no wonder that he kept having nightmares and waking up with his scar burning with all those worries on his mind.


	14. Chapter 14: Percy and Padfoot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: There are Quidditch try-outs and some confusing letters from adults in this chapter, no real news.

Chapter 14: Percy and Padfoot

 

To Harry fifth year seemed to consist entirely of an endless flood of homework and threats, but at least Quidditch still promised an escape.

As Seeker Harry didn't expect to have a lot to do at the Keeper try-outs, but Angelina soon informed him that he was to join the Chasers in throwing the quaffle at the hoops.

Frederick and George were polite enough not to make that unfamiliar task any harder by beating bludgers his way, but the Keeper candidates had to prove their dodging skills and the Chasers were quite used to it. Of course Harry needed dodging practise at well, but not while performing a task he never would be given in a game.

The candidates ranged from disastrous to mediocre. None of them were anywhere near as good as Oliver had been.

After the first round Angelina sent those that even Harry had gotten past off with a dark frown on her face, then turned towards the remaining four.

"Alright," she said. "Second round we'll be going faster. And Harry ..."

"Yes?" Harry asked wondering what he could have done wrong.

He couldn't do any better! He wasn't a Chaser.

"Do actually try to get the ball past Ron this time. It's not fair if he gets a break every fourth throw."

Harry hung his head. He hadn't even been aware that he'd been helping his friend, but felt very guilty anyway and tried extra hard to beat him this time.

But it was no use. He didn't score a single time in the second round and Angelina sent him off the pitch with another reprimand along with two of the candidates for the final one. At least Ron was still in the running, though.

Harry got off his broom reluctantly and sat in the stands to watch. He thought Ron caught a few more balls than his rival, but he also missed two very easy catches. How would Angelina decide?

Not at all yet as it turned out. She made them fly a round around the pitch just dodging bludgers before she finally declared Ron the new Gryffindor keeper.

"But I'd hoped for someone better," she admitted to Harry softly when she was sure Ron couldn't hear her. "He's too nervous."

Harry was delighted anyway and he and Ron had a homework-free evening in celebration. They played chess and talked and laughed along with everybody else when Lee read out the weirdest articles in the Daily Prophet in a funny voice.

Or at least Harry laughed until Lee got to an article about a wizard being sentenced to six months in Azkaban for having been caught trying to get through a door in the Ministry of Magic in the middle of the night. That wiped the smile right off Harry's face. Would Hermione be sentenced to Azkaban as well? Was she perhaps already being held there as she awaited her trial?

 

Harry and Ron spent Saturday morning playing Quidditch privately and then there was the team practise in the afternoon ... which turned into a disaster when some children from the other houses showed up to jeer making Ron so nervous that he dropped the Quaffle and forgot to cover his hoops and gave Katie a nosebleed that wouldn't stop.

As a result of all their slacking off they had to spend all of Sunday doing homework and without Hermione there to help them that took them well past curfew. Harry was in the middle of doing an Astronomy essay wondering what the mice covering Io ate up there when a barn owl appeared with a letter to Ron.

"Who's it from?" he asked his friend eager for any topic that wasn't a moon.

"Percy," Ron said incredulously. "Why would Percy write to me?"

That was strange, but then Percy had always seemed to have a particular liking for Ron.

"Maybe he explains in the letter," Harry suggested and Ron nodded and broke the seal.

"Ah, he wants to congratulate me on becoming a prefect. He's secretary of the Minister himself now, wow! And ... oh! He says the Minister has warned him against having any contact with you. It could be bad for my future as well, so he suggests that I talk to Professor Umbridge about it? Why should I talk with her of all people? Oh, and there'll be an article in the Daily Prophet tomorrow."

"There are several articles in the Daily Prophet every day," Harry remembered. "I think that's why it's called Daily."

Ron shrugged.

"Weird," he declared, put the letter away and went back to his essay.

Harry once again had that strange nightmare of the place with the fountain that night. It took him all the way down the dark corridor and to a door that he didn't really want to go near, because he knew he'd get six months in Azkaban for it. Luckily he woke up before he was caught and the morning mail brought him a letter from his secret uncle to distract him.

Uncle Sirius didn't think nearly as well of Professor Umbridge as Percy. He claimed that the Minister had sent her to Hogwarts Institute to make sure that the students didn't learn any practical magic in Defence Against the Dark Arts. Apparently the Minister thought that Professor Dumbledore would attack the Ministry with an army of students if they did.

"But why would he do that?" Harry asked Ron and Draco. "If he had an army surely he'd use it to attack You-Know-Who?"

"We aren't old enough to join the army," Draco pointed out. "Most likely Auror Black just heard some nonsensical rumour and was just tying to make you laugh."


	15. Chapter 15: The Hogwarts High Inquisitor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Some good things and some bad things happen in this chapter, but most of them are unimportant ... or are they?

Chapter 15: The Hogwarts High Inquisitor

 

There was a lot of excited whispering among the older students in the Great Hall that morning and thanks to their friendship with Frederick and George it didn't take long for the news to filter down to Harry and Ron.

"There's an article about Professor Umbridge in the Daily Prophet," Frederick told them.

"According to Rita Skeeter she has been appointed Hogwarts High Inquisitor because the ministry doesn't like the direction of our education," George reported.

"Rita Skeeter?" Harry repeated with a frown. "But then we can't tell what of it is true and what isn't!"

"What's wrong with the direction of our education?" Neville who was sitting next to Harry inquired.

"What's a High Inquisitor anyway?" Ron asked.

"Well, Rita Skeeter included a long rant about us not learning any proper respect for adults," Frederick told Neville. "But that doesn't fit in with what she quotes the Minister saying."

"Apparently a High Inquisitor is somebody who inspects professors and reports back to the Minister," George informed Ron with a shrug. "I suppose we'll know when we see it."

"What does the Minister say then?" Harry asked. That might be a little more trustworthy than Rita Skeeter's own words.

"Something about not following the curriculum. I don't know what he means. Maybe it has something to do with Professor Hagrid and his screwts."

But Professor Hagrid wasn't even there and the only other subject in which they hadn't always followed the book properly had been Professor Umbridge's own. Those professors were all long gone as well and the last had been an impostor anyway.

This puzzled Harry for a bit, but then he was distracted by getting back his first Potions homework with a failing grade and the warning that that was the grade he would have received for it in his OWL exam. If he had to repeat the year, would he have to move out of his current dorm as well as no longer attend classes with his dorm-mates?

He hardly listened to what the twins told Ron about Professor Umbridge's inspection of Professor Flitwick, but found it quite an entertaining distraction when she appeared in his Divination class where he was once again struggling with dream interpretation.

"A dark corridor with a closed door at the end?" Ron repeated somewhat helplessly. "Thereâ€™s nothing about that in the book!"

"Why it is a warning of impending death, of course!" Professor Trellawney snapped causing everybody to gasp and pale.

"Oh nonsense," Professor Umbridge scoffed. "Why really, Trellawney, how can you scare the children like that? It clearly is not a vision at all, but merely the child's mind visualising his uncertainty over the impending OWL exams and career choices. The door is closed because he cannot decide his future until he has seen his OWL results. No wonder the boy is confused and thinking ever silly nightmare a vision if you insist on telling him everything he dreams of is an omen."

Harry had not liked Professor Umbridge until that moment, but he gave her a grateful smile after this and nodded.

"Yes, I have been thinking about the OWLs and career counselling a lot," he admitted.

"See!" Professor Umbridge triumphed and Professor Trellawney looked almost crushed.

After that experience Harry was delighted to see Professor Umbridge in Transfigurations the next day, but Professor McGonagall hardly let her do anything interesting and made them practise vanishing mice which proved to be quite a problem for several of his classmates, some because they were afraid of the little animals and others because they thought they were too cute to vanish, and poor Ron because they reminded him of his former pet rat Furball who had really been Peter Pettigrew in his animagus form.

The inspection of Care for Magical Creatures later that day was a little more interesting, but only revealed that according to Professor Grubbly-Plank their teaching so far had not been going in the wrong direction there either. They had a good foundation, she said, and she was now introducing them to the creatures most likely to come up in their OWLs. She had no idea why Professor Hagrid wasn't there or when he would be back, but was glad for the extra teaching work.

"Haven't there been a lot of injuries in this class?" Professor Umbridge asked.

"Not that I know of," Professor Grubbly-Plank answered. "Of course there will be some scrapes and bruises when you take children out to do practical work, though. Somebody is always going to be clumsy or play around with whatever tools you hand them behind your back, but that is part of learning how to handle them properly."

Professor Umbridge hemmed and made some notes on her ever-present clipboard and then left them alone with their bowtruckles.

That evening when they came into the Great Hall Hermione was already sitting there as if she had never been away. Harry felt a flood of relief wash over him at the sight and ran up to hug her.

"Oh, Hermione! I was so worried," he shouted. "They didn't put you in Azkaban, did they?"

"No, of course not!" Hermione returned just as loudly which sounded quite unnatural for her. "What are you thinking Harry!"

"Don't shout about it," she whispered into his ear as she returned his hug however. "I'm not supposed to draw any attention to myself or what has happened."

In his delight over seeing her again it took Harry quite a while to notice that she no longer wore her prefect badge.


	16. Chapter 16: In the Hogshead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: So, what did happen to Hermione?

Chapter 16: In the Hogshead

 

"I'm not going to Hogsmeade," Hermione told them on Saturday morning. "I'm not allowed."

"But you're sixteen now!" Ron said. "You're old enough to go by yourself!"

"Yes, but I'm forbidden to leave the castle except for lessons held outside on the grounds. The Hogsmeade trip isn't a lesson and Hogsmeade isn't on the institute grounds."

"I can lend you my invisibility cloak," Harry offered. "And show you the secret passage."

"I know where the passage is," Hermione reminded him. "But it's not worth it. You discovered that yourself in third year, remember?"

Harry had to admit that that was true and they had seen Hogsmeade many times before by now. Back in third year the main attraction had been that it had been new. If you didn't need anything from the shops, Harry realised, it really wasn't exciting anymore.

"Iâ€™ll stay, too," he decided. He was still well equipped with ink and parchment from the last trip and keeping Hermione company after her long absence seemed more worth-while.

Ron looked torn, but eventually decided to stay as well. That brought down the whole horde of first years with all their problems on the group when they tried to make themselves comfortable in the common room and so they ended up wandering the halls instead.

"I'm not supposed to draw attention to what I've done and how easily I was let off," Hermione said suddenly. "So if there's anything you really want to ask about do it now while we're alone."

"Rita Skeeter went to the Aurors after all?" Harry asked after a moment. "I was afraid she would."

"Yes," Hermione confirmed. "Apparently the Daily Prophet was going to fire her for her unexcused absence from work so she decided to confess to being an animagus after all. That almost got her sent to Azkaban for a year, but the Daily Prophet kindly agreed to give her a second chance once she got out and so the wizengamot decided to be merciful as well. They claim that it is because she has never committed any other offence and they trust her to be honest in future, but I think it is because her nasty articles sell so well. The Prophet doesn't want to lose her and the wizengamot doesn't want to get on her bad side."

"And you really weren't taken to Azkaban when the Aurors came to fetch you?" Ron asked. "Not even at first?"

"No," Hermione replied. "Not even for a minute. They didn't take Draco there when they fetched him back in second year either, remember?"

"Yes, but they only wanted him as a witness," Ron said. "And they didn't keep him for days. Where did you sleep?"

Hermione shuddered, but hid it quickly.

"There are some holding cells at the ministry. They are pretty dark and small, but they are only intended for a few days after all. It wasn't bad ... except that you're all alone in the cell without any dormmates. Iâ€™d never slept all alone in a room before so it was really hard to fall asleep."

"And what did they do with you there?" Harry asked. "Why did it take so long?"

"Well, they questioned me a bit, but most of it was just waiting for the trial. That took pretty long, too, though, because they couldn't make up their minds whether I should have known that an animagus in beetle shape has to be treated like a adult witch or not. I think they would have let me off entirely if I could have claimed that I thought it was just a beetle or a magical listening device, but of course I had threatened Rita Skeeter with revealing that that she is an animagus, so I couldn't deny that I knew what she was when I caught her and that I didn't report her right away. So in the end they decided that I could not be held guilty for catching and holding her captive because it was doubtful whether I was old enough to understand that the beetle was to be treated as a witch. I was definitely found guilty of failing to report to the authorities and of blackmail, though. That should have earned me a sentence in Azkaban, but Professor Flitwick ... they sent him to defend me and act as a witness from the institute instead of Professor McGonagall. I don't know why. Maybe he has some legal training. Anyway he pointed out that I wasn't sixteen yet when I committed the deeds and that I would be prevented from taking my OWLs if I were in Azkaban during my fifth year and since those are part of mandatory education that would be illegal. So they'd have to let me return to the institute to complete my education. He also spoke at length about what a diligent and obedient student I usually am and what high hopes the institute has for my OWL results. So eventually the wizengamot gave in and decided to return me and put me under house arrest here so I can continue my education as normal, but not do any extracurricular activities like Hogsmeade trips. And I have to report to Professor Umbridge everyday and they search me and my trunk at random intervals to make sure I'm not holding anything captive again." She shrugged. "But that doesn't really make any difference. After all the institute staff can search us whenever they like anyway."

Harry wasn't so sure of that, but decided not to comment. Sure, the institute staff could search them whenever they liked, but they usually didn't. As far as Harry knew the only time his possessions might have been searched since his arrival at the institute was when Auror Black had searched the dorm for Peter Pettigrew.

"The only thing that was really bad was to miss my birthday," Hermione said suddenly. "They only let me have my birthday letter on the day. The presents were waiting for me in the dorm when they brought me back and I had to open them alone with only the Aurors there to watch and then put them away so Parvati and Lavender wouldn't ask any questions."

"Oh," said Harry unsure how he could console her.

"So what did the letter say," Ron demanded excitedly. "What's your name and when are you going to meet your parents?"

"Hermione Granger," Hermione said in a strangely dull tone. "And I'm not sure I'm going to meet them. I haven't made up my mind yet. They are both Muggles you see and very disappointed that I turned out to be a criminal and ... well, they live in a completely different world from us. How can we ever understand each other?"


	17. Chapter 17: Educational Decree Number 24

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Professor Binns' solutions to his students' lack of last names and wounded owls are ... not quite satisfactory.

Chapter 17: Educational Decree Number 24

 

The decision whether or not she wanted to meet her parents was surprisingly difficult for Hermione. Harry had never seen her ponder any question this long before, not even what electives to choose in third year and back then she had found the choice so difficult that she had taken all of them for a year.

"Why don't you do the same now?" Draco suggested when the question was put to him for the third time. "Just meet them and see how it goes. If you find that you have nothing in common you don't have to agree to a second meeting. If you don't met them at all you'll never know for sure whether you'd have liked them or not."

"But they are disappointed in me," Hermione told him. "They actually wrote that they tore up the original letter and wrote a new one when they heard ... how I'd turned out."

"They don't know the whole story," Ron said. "I'm sure they'll change their minds once you tell them what happened. And you've got great grades. They ought to be proud of that."

"Grades aren't important," Harry reminded him. "Being useful is. But I bet Hermione is going to be really useful when she grows up. She's so very smart."

"They're Muggles," Hermione wailed. "They don't understand how useful Arithmancy is. Or Transfigurations. Or anything!"

"I definitely want to meet my parents at last once," Draco said. "To see what they look like at the very least. Why don't you write them that you want one meeting to see how it goes and to decide everything else after that?"

"Why couldn't I just have had wizard parents?" Hermione sighed.

It was all very easy for Draco who had grown up in wizarding institutes all his life and thus could be sure that at least one of his parents was magical, Harry thought. What would he himself do if he found out that he had Muggle parents?

But then he wouldn't. After all he knew that he had been removed from the magical nursery institute after You-Know-Who had attempted to kill him there, and possibly had killed his magical parents. He always got non-magical gifts for his birthdays and Christmas so his Aunt and Uncle probably were Muggles, but that didn't make Harry feel any less eager to met them. If as he had thought for a while back in third year he really was Auror Potter's son, though, what would he do then? He couldn't meet with a man he knew to be a Death Eater! Would he still get a choice to meet his Aunt and Uncle if he refused to meet his father?

His thoughts were interrupted in the middle of a History of Magic lesson when Hedwig appeared at the window of the classroom. That was very strange. Heâ€™d sent her off with another letter to his secret uncle Sirius the day before and had expected her to arrive with a reply at breakfast as owls usually delivered the mail during that meal. When she hadn't appeared he'd assumed that she was still at the owlery in Grimmauld Place and would spend the day there.

But now here she was and as he soon noticed she was hurt! He asked Professor Binns for permission to take her to the hospital wing.

"One doesn't take an owl to a mediwizard, Perkins!" the Professor scolded. He dated back to a time when students had still known and been addressed by their last names and tended to give his students ones at random rather than remember their first names and numbers. "Why, what an insult! If the animal is in pain, twist his neck around until he's dead, or leave him to die on his own."

There were some shocked screams and gasps from his classmates.

"Why that's nonsense and waste," Hermione scoffed. "The owl might still be made useful again. You have to take her to Professor Hagrid, though, Harry, not Madam Pomfrey."

"Professor Hagrid isn't here," Ron informed her.

"Take her to Professor Grubbly-Plank, Harry!" Lavender called "She'll know what to do! She's much better than Professor Hagrid."

"Not during the lesson!" Professor Binns declared with a surprising amount of authority in his voice. "You can't walk out of a class merely because of some worthless animal. And you Black, how dare you, a mere child, criticise a professor? Why the impertinence!"

So Harry sat with the bleeding Hedwig in his lap while Binns droned on and on. He had no idea what the lesson was abut, but right now he didn't care. He just wanted it to be over. When the ghost teacher finally let them go Harry was the first child out the door even leaving his school-bag behind.

Luckily Professor Grubbly-Plank was in the teachers' lounge and she soon declared that Hedwig would heal completely. It looked like she had been attacked with a spell by another wizard, though.

"But who would attack an owl?" Harry wondered.

He'd have to ask Uncle Sirius ...

That was the moment he realised that he'd handed Hedwig over to Professor Grubbly-Plank with the letter still attached to her leg, but he couldn't run back and ask for it now. He had to get to Potions and he was lucky that he remembered that, because Professor Umbridge was inspecting Professor Snape that lesson and her detentions were said to be even worse than those with Mr. Filch.

Even the other Professors seemed to be afraid of Professor Umbridge these days, though Professor Snape apparently wasn't afraid of anything. He answered her questions calmly and precisely.

Professor Trellawney, whom Harry and Ron had next, on the other hand appeared to be quite flustered. Professor Umbridge had evaluated the results of her inspection, Hermione told Harry later, and put her on probation.

Harry listened to the news excitedly, but then remembered his own business and turned his attention to writing a letter to his Uncle Sirius to explain why he hadn't read his last letter. He'd have to use a school owl, but that wouldn't make a difference to Uncle Sirius.


	18. Chapter 18: Dumbledore's Army

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Uncle Sirius has a theory what happened to Hedwig, but Harry finds it hard to believe.

Chapter 18: Dumbledore's Army

 

Harry was quite surprised when his secret uncle's reply arrived while he was on the way to his next Herbology lesson and by an owl he was quite sure he'd never seen before. It definitely wasn't the rather slow old institute owl he'd sent his own letter off with. This bird was a barn owl as well, but young and athletic looking and lacking any marks of distinction.

He flew off again the moment Harry had detached the letter from his leg, but once Harry got over his initial dismay he realised that it didn't make a difference. He couldn't stop to read his letter and write a reply right here and now. He had a class to get to and Professor Sprout might be very nice and tolerant of all sorts of mishaps and blatant disinterest in her subject, but even she would not tolerate bringing an owl into her lesson. Harry would have had to send him away anyway and use either Hedwig or an institute owl in the evening.

So he just pocketed his letter and sat through the double-lesson as patiently as he could manage. Afterwards he ran straight to the closest bathroom to read, though. The letter explained the owl. Apparently Uncle Sirius had secretly borrowed a specially trained owl of the Auror department that was usually used to communicate with undercover agents and secret informers. He thought that Hedwig's injury sounded suspicious and indicated that somebody had attempted to intercept Harry's mail. Most likely it was Professor Umbridge, he wrote.

'Do not send letters to me by her anymore. She is a very conspicuous bird which makes her easy to follow no matter how bravely she defends her charge. Stick to ordinary looking birds and if possible have a friend take your letter to the owlery so you aren't seen posting anything at all. But do not stop sending Hedwig out entirely all of a sudden, either. Merely make sure that she doesn't carry anything you don't want the Ministry to see. Send her to carry notes to your friends in other houses if you want to meet them, buy parchment and a new quill from Flourish and Blott's, order a Quidditch magazine and send her to Honeydukes for sweets, innocent things that nobody can object to. Write to your old Quiddich team mates who have already graduated and ask them about their careers. You can even let yourself be caught posting such a letter and show it to Professor Umbridge. Then tell her that you're trying to prepare for career advice this way. She can't possibly forbid that.'

Harry could hardly believe his eyes when he read that. Professor Umbridge, a teacher, was supposed to have attacked his owl? Surely Uncle Sirius' imagination had run away with him!

But when he told his friends about it at dinner, Hermione looked very grave and said "I certainly think that she'd be capable of that. She is very close to the Minister from what I have happened to overhear when reporting to her. And Auror Black is an Auror. He would have experience with that sort of thing."

"As an adult and our professor she has the right to check our mail," Ron pointed out. Why would she have to hurt Hedwig then?"

"Maybe because Hedwig refused to let her see it?" Hermione suggested. "The professors may have the right to read our mail, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they do it all the time. Perhaps Hedwig has never had to hand over a letter to anybody other than the recipient before. Or maybe she's used to Hagrid being the one that checks the mail and refused give it to somebody she doesn't know."

"But then Professor Grubbly-Plank would have been the one that hurt her and she didn't know what had happened when I brought Hedwig to her," Harry objected. "Should I go to Professor Umbridge and ask her whether Hedwig refused to show her the letter? I can apologise for my owl's bad manners and show her the last letter I got from Oliver. There's nothing in there that she could mind. It's all about Puddlemere United."

"But then you'd give away that you suspect her of spying on you when normally we'd assume that it was Professor Grubbly-Plank or our head of house that would check our mail. No, you can't do that," Hermione declared categorically "But there is something I can do. Once you have Hedwig back I can mention in my next report that you are worried that if you send her out again whatever attacked her might return. I will ask her as our Defense against the Dark Arts Professor what one can do to protect an owl. If she is interested in who you correspond with she can then ask me where the owl went on the flight she was hurt on. Then I'll tell her of your friend Oliver in Puddlemere."

It was the best plan that they could come up with even though it didn't give Harry the opportunity to apologise. But then Harry had enough other things to worry about at the moment. The stupid dream of the foggy place with the indoor fountain came almost every night now. It had progressed to a point where he stopped outside a door he knew he needed to get through. He could see the handle, close enough to touch ... except that that didn't help him any, because he didn't have hands. It was awfully frustrating.

In addition to that the weather was dreadful, but the Quiddich season was about to start and so Angelina made them practise almost every evening despite the rain and wind.

And then there were the occasional sudden waves of pain in his scar that Harry was beginning to realise came not when You-Know-Who was close by as he used to think, nor when You-Know-Who was thinking about him, but when You-Know-Who felt a particularly strong emotion. If he concentrated Harry could even tell which one it was.

Draco thought that that was called legilimency, but Hermione said that was incorrect, because legilimency was all about reading thoughts and so far Harry had only ever read emotions.


	19. Chapter 19: The Lion and the Serpent

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Will Harry still like Professor Umbridge after the Gryffindor/Slytherin game?

Chapter 19: The Lion and the Serpent

 

The first Quiddich game of the year was once again Gryffindor against Slytherin which led to some excitement among Harry's group of friends. Hermione had always been the only one of them that didn't take much interest in the sport and now the other five were all playing.

"We have a great secret weapon," Gregory announced on the day before the game. "We'll win for sure!"

"Shush!" made Vincent. "Don't give it away. You'll ruin it!"

"I'm not giving it away!" Gregory protested. "I'm just making a prediction. You know, Divination."

Vincent snorted, but for some reason Draco didn't seem to want to join into his house mates' laughter.

"Is something wrong?" Hermione asked him. "You're so quiet today."

"No, nothing," Draco claimed, but then after a moment seemed to change his mind. "I just don't like the 'secret weapon'. It feels wrong, like it should be against the rules, but it isn't. It's perfectly okay. I just don't like to do it."

For some strange reason he looked at Ron when he said that instead of at Hermione who'd asked the question. Harry thought it a little strange at the time, but didn't pay much attention to it. After all they had all been talking and maybe Draco had expected Ron to want to say something in reply.

Ron had been too nervous to say much at all, though and it wasn't until the game had started and the Slytherins started singing that both he and Harry realised what it had meant.

'Ronald is our king,' it rang out across the Quidditch pitch. 'He cannot block a single ring.' and promptly the Quaffle sailed right past Ron and through the middle hoop.

The Slytherins kept right on singing, but Harry knew that there would have been no need to. Once Ron had made one silly mistake he always got so flustered that he kept piling up more and more. It didn't help one bit that Angelina reminded him that his name was Ron and not Ronald or that the twins tried to drown out the singing by shouting loud jests every time they passed Ron. Slytherin scored again and again as Ron's attempts to defend his hoops grew ever wilder and more futile.

There was only one way to save the game for Gryffindor: Harry had to catch the snitch before the Slytherins' point advantage grew so large that even that could no longer balance it out.

And Harry did! It was a close thing, but he managed it just in time and landed grinning with triumph holding up the weakly fluttering ball for all to see.

"I was so sure we'd win," Gregory said touching down not far from the Gryffindor team.

"Yeah, we really should have," Vincent agreed. "I'd never have thought it, but Ron plays even worse than we sang he did. We'll have to ad some more verses to the song."

"Why would anyone make such an idiot keeper anyway?" the Slytherin keeper asked. "Doesn't Gryffindor have anybody that can actually fly?"

Harry was just thinking that he hoped theyâ€™d stop talking about Ron before he landed and heard them when suddenly Frederick and George shot past him launching themselves at the Slytherins. He tried to stop them, but there was only one of him and two of them and they were both older and bigger than he was. All his attempts earned him were a bloody nose and being dragged off to Professor McGonagall's office along with them.

He could have lived with the scolding and loss of points his head of house decided to punish him with however, but then Professor Umbridge showed up and banned them from playing Quidditch for life. When Harry saw her walk off with his confiscated Firebolt he forgot all his gratitude to her for clearing up the misunderstanding about his dreams and began to actually hate her.

"I didn't even do anything!" he wailed at his friends in the common-room "And the Firebolt was a gift from Uncle Sirius. She had no right to take it away! But she wouldn't even listen to me!"

"She is a terrible teacher," Hermione whispered. "I don't understand how they could give us a Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor who won't even let us practise the spells for our OWLs in the first place. We're probably all going to fail."

"Maybe there's something we could do about that?" Ron suggested. "You're a really good student and always ahead of the class, Hermione. Can't you teach us?"

"Oh yes!" Harry agreed delighted with the idea of doing something to spite Professor Umbridge. "Let's have our own Defense Against the Dark Arts Club!"

But Hermione shook her head.

"I can't do anything against her," she said. "Don't you see how fully I am in her power? One bad report by her to the Ministry and they'll probably drag me off to Azkaban. If you want to have a secret club it will have to be without me."

"But who else is good enough to teach us?" Harry asked about to give up on the idea again.

"Well, personally I think any student that has already passed their OWLs would be better suited than myself anyway," Hermione said. "Why don't you go and ask Frederick and George? Theyâ€™re seventh years and not afraid to break the rules. And they'll have a lot more time now that they're no longer playing Quidditch. I bet they'd love to do it."


	20. Chapter 20: Hagrid's Tale

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Just a little chat between old friends

Chapter 20: Hagrid's Tale

 

"Er - Hem!"

Albus Dumbledore glanced up at the painting on his office wall in surprise. It was almost the last of the former headmasters he expected to hear from these days.

"Augustus?" he asked half expecting to find that he'd misheard.

"The Minister ... er ... wishes to see you ... er ... right away ... er ... if it is convenient," the portrait announced.

That was interesting. While Augustus had always seemed rather a bit too stiff and reserved to Albus he had never struck the current headmaster as insecure before.

"And if it isn't?" Albus inquired.

He wasn't exactly busy right now, but he did want to know what had made Augustus so nervous and there was no need to jump at Fudge's every whim as if he were afraid of the cowardly fool.

"Well, then I would tell the Minister so, of course, but it appears to be most urgent. In fact he was in such a hurry that he demanded your immediate arrival downright rudely."

Oh, had he now?

"Then please be so kind as to inform Minister Fudge that I will floo him right after dinner tonight. I cannot possibly abandon my work in the middle of the workday."

"But then he will have to remain at the Ministry after hours," Augustus pointed out.

"And I will have to make that call after my regular working hours," Albus agreed pleasantly. "But in the interest of urgent Ministry business we all have to make little sacrifices of our spare time."

Though of course the Minister himself probably rarely had to do anything of this sort. It should make Cornelius feel exactly who was the more powerful of the pair of them. It might be an unwise challenge, but after all Cornelius had done to him personally and to Hogwarts Institute lately Albus' pride demanded a counter-strike even if it was just a small bit of posturing.

He paid for it by finding Fudge in a very grumpy mood when he did call, but he refused to be intimidated.

"Well, Minister, I hear you have some urgent request?" Albus asked after they had exchanged short business-like greetings.

"Indeed I ... Well, I have been made aware of a most troublesome legal problem concerning one of your students."

"Miss Hermione Granger?" Albus asked pleasantly. "Oh dear, I thought you would have been informed of this as the events progressed The matter is quite decided by now, though of course I haven't handled any part of it personally. Professor Flittwick was in charge of the matter at the time, but of course he kept me well informed. I can send you copies of his reports if there are any gaps in those of the Ministry."

"The Ministry reports are most detailed and I lack no information, thank you," Fudge snapped.

"Well, then if you want to be informed on the current behaviour of the girl, I suggest that you talk to Professor Umbridge in person. She and I have agreed that I only be informed if Hermione should fail to report or say or do anything that might merit further action. I prefer that she desn't waste my time with daily confirmation of her proper behaviour. I do have a lot of children under my care after all. Now, if that is all ..." Albus started to withdraw his head from the fire.

"No it is not!" Fudge exclaimed hastily. "I didn't want to talk about Hermelindis at all!"

"Hermione, Minister," Albus corrected mildly. "The girl's name is Hermione. Are you sure your reports are quite correct?"

"I'm sure they are!" Fudge barked. "I have not read ... that is not re-read them today as the matter at hand has nothing to do with ... Hermione. That matter is quite closed as far as I am concerned."

"That is good to hear," Albus interrupted smiling. "Can I inform Professor Umbridge that no further check-ups will be necessary? I am sure they are quite a demand on her time and she is a very busy woman teaching fifteen classes and serving as Hogwarts High Inquisitor in what ought to be her spare time. Defense against the Dark Arts as you know is one of our most important mandatory subjects which makes it very work intensive and the inquisitor's post too is one of such high responsibility that I do marvel how she manages to find the time for it all. She truly is a most remarkable woman ..."

"Yes, yes, yes," the Minister waved that topic aside impatiently. "I want to talk about Harry Potter!"

"Now really, Harry's visions are in no way a legal matter," Albus declared fighting hard not to show his exasperation. "We have been over that before."

"This isn't about the visions as you call them!" Fudge barked. "The Muggle Minister of Family Affairs has just submitted a memo to our attention. Apparently Harry was mistakenly transferred to our institute against the will of his legal guardians and they are demanding his immediate return to the institute of their choice. Of course we cannot tolerate such a scandalous breech of the law. Harry must be transferred immediately."

For a moment Albus actually reeled under the unexpected blow, but then he rallied. Fudge might think that he held a trump card here, but actually he had nothing at all.

"Why Minister, that cannot possibly be the case. First of all Harry's rightful 'legal guardian' is his father, James Potter. He does not have any other."

"So I thought as well, but the Muggle Ministry's file informs me that he is under the guardianship of his Muggle Aunt and her husband," the Minister said with badly concealed glee.

"If you check the Ministry file - our Ministry's, or should I say your own? - you will find that Harry's parents who were still married at the time transferred the guardianship to Lily Evans Potter's sister for the duration of Harry's life in the Muggle world after Voldemort's failed attempt to kill the boy. It was however to revert to them the moment he re-entered our world in order to start his magical education. This was done in order to enable them to cut all ties to the boy so Voldemort's followers would be unable to trace him to his Muggle institutes."

"Ah," Fudge interjected triumphantly. "But that re-entry should never have taken place as the Muggle guardians chose that Harry should be sent to a Muggle Secondary Institute rather than Hogwarts before he was transferred. Therefore he was still in the Muggle world and still under their guardianship."

"But Minister," Albus countered. "Do remember that we have the legal right and indeed duty to override Muggle parents' decisions if they refuse to send magical children to Hogwarts. If we did not children's magic would go untrained and remain out of their control threatening the international statute of secrecy. This clearly applies to pureblood children under Muggle guardianship as well."

"But the law doesn't state that!" Fudge claimed. "An oversight indeed, but we must follow the letter of the law."

"I beg to differ," Albus said. "The intent of the law is much more important in a case like this, but even if it weren't the Muggle's guardianship of Harry lapsed long before Harry was old enough to transfer when Lily Evans divorced James Potter and dropped his name in order to marry Claudius Prewett. By doing that she gave up all rights to Harry Potter and therefore her relatives lost their claim as well. The guardianship reverted to James Potter automatically and surely he would never choose to leave his son to go untrained."

"We cannot know that. He didn't re-claim the boy from the Muggles at the time, which indicates his intent to have him raised by Muggles."

"Oh no, he merely feared to create a connection to the wizarding world by which Death Eaters might trace Harry and murder him in revenge for Voldemort. Not having any convenient Muggle relatives of his own he saw no other chance to ensure Harry's protection in the Muggle world then to let his ex-wife's relatives continue to arrange Harry's upbringing until he was old enough to be transferred to Hogwarts. I suggest that you do nothing in the matter until you have asked James Potter what he wants to be done with his son. That should clear up the situation once and for all."

"Of course it will," Fudge allowed. "But I fear until we have Auror Potter's definite decision in the matter Harry will have to be transferred to comply with the current legal appearance of the case. He can be returned as soon as his father's rights and will have been established in a court of law of course."

"Why Minister, you forget that children should only be transferred at the beginning of a school year so as to avoid disruption of the continuity of their education. Moreover this is Harry's OWL year. If he were transferred to a Muggle institute after four and a half years of magical education and suddenly expected to join a class at the same level of Muggle education he could neither catch up quickly enough to pass the Muggle O-levels nor would he receive the necessary preparation to perform adequately in OWL exams. Therefore it would be irresponsible to transfer him before he has taken his exams at the end of this school year. The very same reasons that prevented Hermione Granger's going to Azkaban forbid Harry Potter's transfer to a Muggle institute."

Of course the Minister made further protestations, but Albus wasn't worried. As long as he continued to have hold of Harry nobody would be able to get at him without his leave.

There was an outside chance that Fudge would empower Dolores Umbridge to take the boy of course, but Albus was confident that the educational board and even the Daily Prophet would not accept that idea as readily as they had reasons for the 'improvement of the quality and safety of magical education'.


	21. Chapter 21: The Eye of the Snake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Are house-elves humans? Best ask Professor Umbridge. She'll explain.

Chapter 21: The Eye of the Snake

 

Professor Hagrid had returned and Care for Magical Creatures promptly became more scary again. The Professor took them into the Forbidden Forest and showed them some very demonic looking carnivorous horses ... Well, he showed Harry and Neville the horses in any case. They were invisible to everybody else. Apparently only people who had seen a human being die could see them. This confused everybody. Harry had had a dream of You-Know-Who killing an old man once, yes, but did that really qualify as seeing him die? And as for Neville, he swore that he had never seen anything of the kind.

"It was You-Know-Who's attack on the nursery institute, actually," Professor Umbridge who had appeared unexpectedly to inspect Professor Hagrid declared. "He murdered one of the nurses when she stepped between him and her charges. Two babies had to witness that crime. I do not remember their names of course, but it will have been these two."

"Oh, but Professor Umbridge!" Hermione squealed in a rather unnaturally fawning tone that made Harry and Ron wince. "Aren't the nurses house-elves?"

"Why yes, of course they are," the Professor replied.

"But we just learned that you have to have seen a human being die in order to be able to see Thestrals," Hermione reminded them all. "Do house-elves count as humans then? Are they to be treated like adult wizards?"

"Oh well, they ... They are classified as beings, Hermione," Professor Umbridge lectured. "That does not exactly give them the same rights that wizards have, but they are above creatures like the Thestrals. If you are concerned that you might get into legal trouble it is certainly safer not to do anything to a house-elf that isn't your own property that would be illegal to do to a wizard, but they are certainly beneath you and you should not tolerate any insolence from them."

After that rather unclear explanation Professor Umbridge returned to making fun of Professor Hagrid. Harry might have enjoyed that show if Professor Umbridge hadn't confiscated his broom. He could not forgive her for that and his anger about it made everything she did seem a lot less funny.

Besides Professor Hagrid looked like he'd been beaten up. Most likely it had just been one of the wild creatures in the forest that hadn't realised that he was helping it out of some trap or treating some injury, but it made him look more pitiful than ridiculous.

As Christmas approached the Gryffindor Quidditch team finally rallied from the loss of three long-standing members and held try-outs for replacements. The new beaters Andrew and John couldn't match Frederick and George for strength or coordination, but made up for that by still being young and looking forward to several more years on the team, while this would have been the twins' last anyway. They'd get stronger with age and improve their teamwork with practise. As far as Harry's replacement as seeker was concerned, though, he actually overheard some people comment that in their opinion Ginevra was even better than he had been and he caught himself actually regretting saving her from the basilisk back in his second year.

Of course he didn't seriously mean that! It was after all in no way little Ginevra's fault that Harry was forbidden to play and Gryffindor was lucky to have such a good replacement seeker. It just hurt to watch other people fly when he couldn't.

Just a few nights before Christmas Harry once again found himself in the hall with the fountain. He crawled across it to the elevator as he always did, routine having long since taken the edge of nervousness off that part of the journey.

The elevator was as always empty when it arrived and Harry curled up to make sure his tail wasn't caught in the door as it closed and pushed the lowest button with his nose. There was a slight jerk as it started moving again and then the vibrations of it gliding downwards and soon Harry poured out of it again and stretched along the familiar dark corridor. The stone floor felt cold against his belly and Harry thought longingly of taking a sun-bath to replenish his energy. But of course it was night and there wasn't anyone here to cast a warming spell on him either.

Or was there? Harry thought he tasted the smell of a man nearby. He flicked out his tongue and indeed there he was! But he was not supposed to be here and he was not Harry's friend.

Harry raised his head high off the floor and hissed threateningly at the red-haired wizard with his ridiculous little wand. He dodged a spell easily and then he struck sinking his fangs deep into the soft, hot body.


	22. Chapter 22: St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: And the consequences of Professor Umbridge so kindly convincing Harry that his dreams are not visions are ...

Chapter 22: St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries

 

Harry woke up quite disoriented and frightened. It took him several minutes to remember that he was a wizard and not a snake and that his mission was a school-day full of classes to attend and not to get though a door at the end of a dark corridor. Still he couldn't get the dream entirely out of his mind and so he decided to tell his friends at breakfast.

"You know this nightmare I've been having?" he asked them. "It got really exciting tonight."

The others all nodded. Only Hermione looked surprised.

"You've been having a recurring nightmare?" she asked.

"Yes, there's this huge hall. It's all foggy and I can't see it properly, but I still know that there's a fountain in it," he began to tell his story.

Ron laughed. "Yes, imagine that, Hermione! A fountain inside a building!"

"The Ministry of Magic has one just like that," Hermione said. "It's in the entrance hall and has all sorts of magical creatures and beings looking up at a witch and wizard. It is very impressive," she added when she noticed Professor Umbridge walk past their table.

"Well, I can't actually see the fountain in my dreams," Harry admitted. "I just know it is there somehow. But I have nothing to do with it. I just crawl past it to the elevator."

"Crawl?" Neville asked. "You never mentioned that before. Why do you have to crawl?"

"Well, I never really noticed before, but actually I'm a snake," Harry explained.

"A snake?" Ron asked. "Why are you a snake?"

Harry shrugged. "Well, it's a dream, isn't it? Why shouldn't I be a snake in a dream? Anyway, I crawl into the elevator and ride down to the lowest floor. Except that there are stairs down there that lead even lower, but no lower button in the elevator."

"Again like the Ministry," Hermione said. "It has several levels below the surface and the lowest can't be reached by the elevator. It has hearing rooms for court cases and some holding cells. And right above that is the last level that the elevator goes to. That one has nothing but a long really dark corridor and one door at the end. That leads to the Department of Mysteries where they keep magical artefacts that aren't fully explained yet. They could be dangerous, you see."

"Yes," Harry said. "Exactly like that. I crawl past the stairs that lead down to the lowest level and down that long, dark corridor that leads to a door I can't get through. But this time there was a wizard in front of it and I hissed and bit him. That's how I realised that I was a really huge monstrous snake. I think I was almost as big as the basilisk. That wizard stood no chance against me."

"And that's supposed to be a nightmare?" Seamus asked. "I say that's really cool dream. I wish I had ones like that sometimes."

"That's just because you've never felt it," Harry told him. "It's really scary when I'm dreaming it."

"Oh and that poor wizard," Hermione said. "Just imagine being attacked by a huge snake when you're just walking down a corridor all unsuspectingly."

Just then the post owls arrived though and with them came Hermione's copy of the Daily Prophet. She gave the delivery owl his knut and disappeared behind the paper. Harry who had been about to explain that the wizard had been an enemy shrugged and began to butter his toast.

"What was our first lesson today again?" he asked the others. "Please tell me it isn't Potions. I need to double-check part of my essay. I think I ..."

"Harry!" Hermione said suddenly. "Harry! Look!"

And then she spread her paper in front of him right on top of his freshly buttered toast.

Harry yelped and complained, but now Ron and Neville were staring at the paper and saying "Harry" in very strange tones as well.

Harry glanced at the headline of the article Hermione was pointing at. 'Huge Snake Murders Employee in Ministry Building' it read.

All of a sudden Harry was no longer hungry. He dropped his knife and began to read as quickly as he could.

Apparently one Arthur Weasley, head of the Ministry's Misuse of Muggle Artefacts department had worked overtime last night. Maybe he'd been so happily productive that he hadn't noticed the passing of the time, or perhaps he'd overdone it and fallen asleep. There was no way to find out anymore. What had been determined quite definitely was that he had still been in the building well after midnight.

Then there was another unclear bit about what had happened on his way out. Maybe he'd simply been so tired he'd ridden the elevator down much further than he'd intended or maybe he'd heard or seen something unusual and remembering the recent attempt to break into the Department of Mysteries he'd gone there to make sure everything was alright. Most likely Mr. Weasley had surprised somebody trying to break in, just like Mr, Sturgis Podmore and that stranger had set loose or conjured a monster that had bitten poor Mr. Weasley with poisonous fangs. He had been found dead in a huge pool of blood that wouldn't congeal when the first unspeakable had arrived to start work the next morning.

'Our experts tell us that the shape of the wound implies snake fangs,' the press-spokeswitch of St. Mungo's hospital had announced. 'And the fact that the bite was poisonous supports that theory. We do not know of any kind of snake that has fangs this big except for the basilisk however and Mr. Weasley clearly did not die of basilisk venom. We are currently working under the assumption that the thief enlarged some other kind of snake and are trying to identify the venom to determine whether death was actually caused by it or by the extreme blood-loss.'

'It is a terrible tragedy,' the ministry spokeswitch had stated. 'Mr. Weasley was one of the Ministry's oldest and most enthusiastic employees. He was well known for his fascination with all things Muggle and tireless efforts to protect these, or less fortunate fellows, from pranks and thoughtless endangerment by his fellow wizards. He will be sorely missed.'

The article was quite a shock to Harry. Could he maybe have saved that poor wizard's life, if only he'd reported what he'd thought of as a mere dream as a possible vision right away? He felt quite guilty, but to his surprise his wasn't the worst reaction at the Gryffindor table.

He'd only just finished reading and returned to awareness of his surroundings sufficiently to notice that Professor McGonagall was leading Frederick and George out of the Great Hall crying.

Since he had been banned from playing Quidditch the twins had been his only friends in the higher years which made it hard to get information, but eventually Lavender overheard the seventh years talking about the matter.

"Apparently the wizard that died in the Ministry last night was their father," she told the excited fifth years. "And they were very close. He was really proud of his children and arranged to meet them almost every month."


	23. Chapter 23: Christmas on the Closed Ward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: No St Mungos Christmas obviously, but Harry gets an uncomfortable conversation with another DADA professor instead.

Chapter 23: Christmas on the Closed Ward

 

Gryffindor tower was a lot more quiet than usual that Christmas. There were hardly any pranks as the twins were distracted by their grief and their laughter and verbal jokes were noticeably missing as well.

"And they're seventh years now," Hermione said when Ron mentioned it to his friends. This will be their last ever Christmas at Hogwarts institute."

That was a strange thought. So the common room would always be this quiet and somehow greyer and more boring looking next year? Despite having the example right in front of his eyes and ears Harry found that very hard to imagine. It had always been such a vibrant, chaotic, happy place.

Harry's mind didn't remain on trying to imagine the future common room for long, though. It kept returning to his confiscated broom.

That had once been a Christmas present after all and Harry had half hoped that he'd get another one to replace it, but no such luck. In fact, he'd received fewer and more boring presents than usual. Surely his Muggle relatives or Uncle Sirius couldn't have forgotten him, though?

After a while of staring morosely into the fire while the other children around chatted about the presents they'd received and the decorations in the Great Hall and what an excellent feast they'd have tonight, Harry decided that he had to do something about the broom situation. Maybe Uncle Sirius didn't even know that it had been confiscated!

So he went upstairs, got out ink and parchment and wrote a long letter to his secret uncle, telling him all about the disastrous Quiddich match, losing his broom and at the spur of the moment also about his dream of being a snake and killing a wizard and then reading about the twins' father having been killed by a snake the next morning.

He sent Hedwig off with the letter even though he knew that Hermione would advise him to use a less noticeable bird. Using his own owl felt somehow comforting today.

When he returned to the tower to go down to the feast with his friends he found Ron alone.

"Hermione went to report to Professor Umbridge like everyday," he explained. "But she hasn't come back yet. You don't think they could have arrested her again, do you?"

A cold fist seemed to clutch at Harry's stomach at the thought, but then why would they?

"She hasn't done anything bad," he reminded Ron. "Or has she told you anything I don't know about?"

Ron shook his head. "But then where is she?"

Harry shrugged. "Maybe she went straight to the Great Hall? A lot of people have already gone and there are the decorations to look at."

So they went downstairs without Hermione. but she was not at the Gryffindor table either. Their dormmates had reserved three seats however and so Harry sat down next to Neville as he often did and they talked about biscuits and Christmas pudding until finally the first course of the feast appeared and Hermione and Professor Umbridge entered the Great Hall at almost the same moment.

"Hermione!" Harry greeted her as she sat down next to him. "We already thought you were going to miss the feast. And this soup is delicious. It would have been such a pity."

"Not to mention that there'll be Christmas pudding!" Neville added.

Ron however said nothing. Quite uncharacteristically he'd stopped eating and was staring wide-eyed over Harry's head. For a moment Harry wondered what extraordinary decoration might be floating up there, but then a loud "Hem-Hem!" made him shoot around.

"Professor Umbridge?"

Why wasn't she at the head table with the other teachers? Surely she couldn't already have received Uncle Sirius' demand to return his broom? Or could she? Was it possible that he was about to get his most beloved possession back? He'd be meek and grateful, Harry told himself, and promise not to play on the Quidditch team ever again, just like his punishment demanded. He'd only fly a little for his own enjoyment.

"You claim to have had a vision of Mr. Weasley's death in the Ministry of Magic?" the professor demanded angrily.

"I had to report your dream to an adult, of course," Hermione explained with an odd emphasis on the word dream.

"I was ... that is, I saw a snake bite a man," Harry said. It probably wasn't a good idea to confess to having been the snake. "I thought it was just a dream, though. I don't know what Mr. Weasley looked like."

"Oh, so you read about the death of that poor man in the paper and the first thing you can think of to say is: Oh, I had a vision of this!?"

"No Professor!" Harry and several of his classmates exclaimed.

"Really Professor," Neville added. "Harry told us about the strange dream he'd had at breakfast and then the owls came in with the paper that had the story. He couldn't have read it first."

"So you claim to have had a vision of somebody being killed and you never reported it to an adult?" the Professor demanded.

"I thought it was a dream!" Harry defended himself. "You said I was dreaming of being worried about the OWLs and choosing what company to work for. It was just like those dreams until the snake bit the wizard."

"I ... will look into this," Professor Umbridge threatened. "And you are not to spread the tale any further. It was a dream. There are stranger coincidences sometimes. If you spread any rumours about visions around the institute it will mean detention for the rest of the year. For all of you!"

With that she turned around and strode off towards the head table.

"B... But why?" Neville stuttered. "We only told the truth."

"She doesn't like people to think Harry has visions," Ron explained.

"The Minister thinks it will stir up a panic among his voters," Hermione elaborated. "And it is her duty to stop that. I had to report it, though. If I hadn't and she'd learned it from somebody else, she'd say I'd lied to her. I told her it was a dream, though and that we were frightened by how much it resembled the news story. I never called it a vision and I didn't tell her about the corridor or the door, or about you being the snake, but I do think you should tell all that to the headmaster or Professor McGonagall."

Maybe he should, Harry thought. What if his visions showed him more deaths? What if they could be prevented if he reported them quickly enough?

But Harry really didn't want to tell any adult that he'd been the snake that had murdered Frederick and George's father. He nodded reluctantly.

"I'll see the headmaster later."

Maybe he could tell it all without mentioning the part about being the snake.


	24. Chapter 24: Occlumency

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Nothing but disappointments for Harry in this chapter

Chapter 24: Occlumency

 

Uncle Sirius' reply arrived by barn owl consisting of both a letter and a package.

'Dear Harry,  
it seems that my gift to you did not make it through the institute's scan. Therefore I am sending it to you now.'

Harry put the letter aside at that and opened the parcel. It contained only a simple mirror, though, and Harry was quite confused why that should have been considered inappropriate by the institute staff until he read the letter further and saw Uncle Sirius's explanation. It was a communication mirror through which Harry could talk with Sirius rather than send an owl that might be intercepted. It would only work when Sirius was at home and safe from detection of course, but Harry thought that was very likely to be the case in the evenings after curfew when Harry would have little trouble to make time to talk as well. At the moment Sirius had to be at the Ministry, though, so the mirror only showed Harry his own face.

The original hopes Harry had had when he'd seen the letter were disappointed, though. Uncle Sirius thought it would be unwise to challenge someone as dangerous and powerful as Professor Umbridge over a mere broom. Harry should be patient. Most likely Professor Umbridge would be recalled by the minister at the end of the year and then Harry's ban would probably be forgotten as long as he didn't draw attention to it by asking Professor Umbridge's successor for permission to fly again.

It was quite painful to Harry. The rest of the school year might not be as long as his whole life, but its end was still so very far away!

To make matters even worse Harry was called to Professor McGonagall's office not long after receiving the owl from his secret uncle.

Had somebody reported his receipt of the forbidden gift? But surely he couldn't be blamed for opening his mail? He hadn't shown anyone the letter so the Professor couldn't know that he knew that the mirror had been refused by an institute scan.

Or had Professor Umbridge told Professor McGonagall about the vision? Or had he done something else the Professors disapproved of and that he couldn't even remember?

Harry ran to the Transfigurations Professor's office feeling almost terrified, but she invited him in quite politely.

"The headmaster has asked me to inform you of a change in your schedule," she told him calmly. "You will be taking remedial Potions lessons with Professor Snape once a week from now on."

"Remedial Potions?" Harry wasnâ€™t anywhere near as good at Potions as Hermione or Draco, but he had thought he was about as good as Neville and Vincent and definitely better than Gregory and Ron. "Only me?"

"I am well aware that you do not need it, but the headmaster does not want anybody, especially Professor Umbridge, to know what Professor Snape will really be teaching you. Therefore we will put about that you have asked Professor Snape for remedial lessons to improve your Potions grade."

"But why would I want that? I'm in no danger of failing Potions."

"Ah, but you need an Outstanding in your OWLs to take NEWT level Potions next year," McGonagal declared. "And you do need a NEWT in Potions to become an Auror."

Harry stared at her wide-eyed. "Why would I want to be an Auror?" He'd never considered that. Uncle Sirius was an Auror of course, but so was that horrid Auror Potter and he'd be working for the Minister who hated him! "I'd never want to be an Auror!"

For a moment Professor McGonagall looked perplexed.

"You don't have to become one for real. You just need to pretend that you do until you take your OWLs. After that you can tell people that you changed your mind because you didn't get the required grades. The requirements for Aurors are very high and many people fail to fulfil them all. Nobody will be surprised."

"Nobody will believe that I want to become an Auror," Harry insisted "Especially if itâ€™s that difficult. They all know I'm not that good at Defense Against the Dark Arts."

The Professor hesitated. "Mediwizard then? Nurse? Those require Potions as well and nobody would be surprised that a helpful and kind Gryffindor would choose to work in health care."

"I suppose nurse would be okay," Harry admitted a little doubtfully. It didn't seem quite the thing he wanted to do, not all that productive, though it definitely was useful enough. "Maybe making medicines?" he suggested.

"A medical brewer?" McGonagall said brightening considerably. "Why that requires excellent Potions skills of course. Yes, we will tell people that you want to become a medical brewer, if you can."

When Harry actually arrived for his first remedial Potions lesson however he soon realised that he wouldn't be learning anything to prepare him for such a career there. Occlumency turned out to only have to do with mind-reading and even though Professor Snape explained that it was to make him stop having those horrible visions Harry was very disappointed.

He was beginning to like the thought of becoming a medical brewer more and more and why did his teachers want him to stop having the visions when they might help them figure out what You-Know-Who was up to?

And just how the hell did one clear one's mind?

Harry's first Oclumency lesson left him confused, disappointed and dejected, not to mention that he had a terrible headache and the feeling that You-Know-Who was very happy about something. He couldn't quite help suspecting that it was his Occlumency lessons, though he told himself firmly that he was much too insignificant for that.


	25. Chapter 25: The Beetle at Bay

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: So, can we get a DA with Hermione being on probation and supervised by Professor Umbridge of all people?

Chapter 25: The Beetle at Bay

 

You-Know-Who's happiness was explained soon enough. The next morning the Daily Prophet brought news of a mass-breakout from Azkaban. Harry borrowed a copy of the newspaper from Katie and stared at the pictures of the escaped prisoners in horror. They were all death eaters and looked very scary.

"They are hardly going to come here," Neville tried to reassure him. "They'll go into hiding from the dementors."

"Peter Pettigrew came here," Ron pointed out. "And the dementors will come back here as well. Thatâ€™s even worse."

"They won't go into hiding," Harry said. "It was You-Know-Who that freed them and they are going to stay with him."

"But he is in hiding," Hermione said. "And he has no reason to attack the institute. It'll be the ministry they'll strike at when they do."

"And what if they take the ministry?" a voice behind them interrupted.

Harry turned around and to his surprise saw that it was Frederick and George.

"We've been thinking," George explained. "He's already killed our father. And Victor Krumm and ... and we don't even know how many others. The Ministry won't prepare to fight him. They're just burying their heads in the sand. So we'd better be prepared. We're going to start training our own army. Are you in?"

At first Harry was going to decline. He had no ambitions to be a soldier, he was going to be a medical brewer. But then he realised that George had of course been joking again. What he actually meant was that the twins were going to give the remedial practical Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons several students had been asking them for for a while now. That was a different matter. Harry was bad at Defense Against the Dark Arts after all and needed all the extra lessons he could get to pass his OWLs. He, Ron and Neville signed up quite eagerly. Only Hermione shook her head regretfully.

"I wish I could," she said. "But I have to report all my movements to Professor Umbridge and if she caught me lying ..."

"Youâ€™ll pass the OWLs anyway," Harry tried to console her. "You are such an excellent student. You don't need remedial lessons."

Nevertheless it was sad that she couldn't attend the lessons in the secret 'Room of Requirements' with them.

At least a new educational decree gave them all something to laugh about. Teachers were no longer allowed to give their students any information that didn't pertain to their subjects resulting in hilarious scenes such as Professor Flitwick shrugging helplessly and saying "That does not pertain to Charms," when Parvati asked him whether she could go to the bathroom and Professor McGonagall regretfully informing the blackboard that she wasn't allowed to tell her students that the next Hogsmeade weekend would be on Valentine's Day.

Only Care for Magical Creatures and Divination were no fun. Both Professors were on probation now and Professor Umbridge supervised all their lessons. How she could do this and not miss any of her Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons remained a mystery. At least this had led to Professor Hagrid adopting the curriculum that Professor Grubbly-Plank had planned out at the beginning of the year and though Professor Hagrid was made terribly nervous by Professor Umbridge's presence that made his lessons much more pleasant and interesting.

Harry would probably have enjoyed the change more if he hadn't had to cope with his Occlumency lessons and the almost constant pain in his scar as well. Despite all his efforts Harry was making no progress at emptying his mind and was now dreaming of being a snake and sneaking through the Ministry of Magic every night.

Since Hermione still wasn't allowed to go to Hogsmeade Harry once again stayed at the institute on Valentine's Day. Ron didn't even get to decide for himself as Angelina scheduled an additional Quiddich training session for the day. Harry watched them play for a little while, but it only made him long to jump onto a broom, any broom, and join in and the new beaters were a disaster.

Ginevra however really seemed to be quite a talented seeker, which for some strange reason reason made Harry feel even worse. He should have been glad for the team and his house, shouldn't he? So why was he wishing that she'd been even worse than the beaters?

Another unpleasant thing was that after the first few additional Defense Against the Dark Arts lessons Frederick intercepted Harry and Ron when they were pairing off for the lesson and told them that they weren't a good pair.

"Not if you both want to improve your skills in these lessons," he said and directed Ron to work with Neville and Harry over to where the sixth years were practising. "You should match well with Cho," he declared. "She's a bit shorter than the other sixth years so she wonâ€™t tower over you and Marietta ... well, we're moving her over to the fifth year to tutor Gregory. The poor boy hasn't been keeping up very well and as I understand it Marietta isn't actually here to learn, so we'll try her at teaching."

Marietta blushed, but did as she was told and after the lesson Gregory was full of praise and gratitude for her teaching. Apparently she'd gone back all the way to some spells he'd never quite mastered in third year and he now felt confident that he could at last do those correctly.

"And how was working with Cho?" Ron asked with a grin. "You fancied her a little last year, didn't you?"

Well, yes, but that had been as a partner for dancing at the Yule Ball, not at Defense Against the Dark Arts.

"Difficult," Harry admitted. "And I don't actually know any of the sixth years. Especially not the Ravenclaws."

He'd felt lost and lonely among them and had never even heard of the spell they'd practised before. He had managed well enough once Cho had explained it, but it had still been embarrassing and he hadn't been nearly as good as her.


	26. Chapter 26: Seen and Unforeseen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: It is a bad week for Harry, but worse for one of his friends and one of his teachers as it turns out.

Chapter 26: Seen and Unforeseen

 

It was altogether a bad week and that even though it had looked quite promising at first. There had been both Vincent's birthday and the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff Quidditch game to look forward to.

The birthday was quite spoiled, though, when Vincent decided to start it by opening his birthday letter and found that his father had been none other than the Death Eater that had been killed in the teachers' attempt to rescue Victor the year before.

"It's probably good that he's dead, you know," Hermione tried to comfort Vincent. "Just imagine having a living Death Eater for a father!"

Vincent nodded miserably.

"I still have a mother," he reported. "But should I see her? She was married to a Death Eater, so who knows what she's like."

They exchanged some worried glances and finally Hermione offered rather hesitantly: "Well, I have decided not to meet my parents, you know. They are Muggles after all and and can't understand our world at all. And they wrote ... Well, from the way they wrote me I didnâ€™t think they were all that eager to know me either."

"My mother wants to see me though," Vincent said staring at his letter. "She says I'm all she has left of my father now ... But I'd rather not have him for my father at all. What should I do?"

Harry had no answer to that and tried to distract Vincent by drawing his attention to the cake and presents instead, but they didn't really cheer him up. It was the most dismal birthday Harry had ever attended.

Then came the Quidditch match which proved just how disastrous the Gryffindor team really was. They lost by only ten points, but that was only because brave little Ginevra caught the snitch before the Hufflepuffs could score even more points. Harry didn't think that Ron had stopped a single ball all game and as for the beaters, the less one said of them the better.

Defense Against the Dark Arts practise was becoming the best part of Harry's life against all odds. In Harry's own opinion it was still his very worst subject, though for some reason Cho kept telling him he was doing great for his age and should stop comparing the time it took him to master a new spell with the time it took her and her fellow sixth years who'd already read all about it in class.

"And besides you are much better at Defense Against the Dark Arts then at Divination if you are completely honest about it," Ron said. "We just always cheat in Divination and never in Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"From what you've been telling us it's really Occlumecy that you're doing worst of all at," Hermione said.

That wasn't in the least encouraging, but Harry had to admit it was true. He still failed at clearing his mind and shutting You-Know-Who out. In fact by now it actually felt like a success when Harry had a dream that wasn't about the Ministry of Magic, even though in it he was You-Know-Who himself instead of the snake and was punishing a Death Eater for not having some thing, Harry couldn't quite figure out what.

Harry reported it all to Professor Snape at the beginning of his next Oclumency lesson, but it only made the Professor scold him for his lack of success at clearing his mind before bed and he attacked Harry's mind so vehemently that in his fright Harry got Occlumency and Defense Against the Dark Arts mixed up and cast Protego instead of clearing his mind. The result was very surprising and inexplicable. Instead of simply blocking the attack it made Harry invade Professor Snape's mind and see a memory of Uncle Sirius and his friends bullying his teacher. Of course that did nothing to improve Professor Snape's temper. It only left Harry feeling embarrassed and awkward. He wasn't even sure whether it was his own invasion of his professor's mind that made him feel so bad. It might just as well have been his beloved uncle's long ago misbehaviour.

The next attack came even more forcefully and Harry didn't want to repeat his mistake even though it had been the most successful defence he had ever managed. Instead he let the Professor enter his mind and look at the dream of the corridor and door once again, but suddenly that changed. The door flew open and Harry saw a circular room with identical doors all around. The room made him feel dizzy and he thought he'd fall, but then he was rescued by the shrill scream of a woman.

He woke as if from a trance just in time to see Professor Snape rush from the room. After a moment's hesitation Harry followed and caught up with his teacher in the entrance hall where they discovered the strangest spectacle Harry could have ever imagined happening at the institute.

Professor Umbridge was throwing Professor Trellawney out of the castle! And from the way it looked she had probably started by physically throwing her down the stairs. At least Professor Trellawney was sitting at the foot of the stairs when Harry arrived and a moment later Professor Umbridge appeared and threw her trunks down after her despite Professor McGonagall's protests that surely a fired staff member ought to be allowed at least a day or two to pack and arrange for new accommodations.

Only when Professor Dumbledore arrived and told her to stop did Professor Umbridge relent, though quite obviously she didn't like the headmaster's decision at all.

Harry however was relieved. Professor Trellawney was not to be thrown out to find her own way to the unemployment camp.

In fact, there was no need for her to go there at all as her successor had no use for her rooms. As a centaur he'd find it quite impossible to climb a rope ladder and indeed already struggled with ordinary stairs so much that he had requested his classroom and quarters to be on the ground floor. Thus there was nothing wrong with Professor Trellawney staying in her old room until she found a new position.


	27. Chapter 27: The Centaurs and the Sneak

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: It's Ron's birthday this time. Surely this one will go well?

Chapter 27: The Centaurs and the Sneak

 

Divination suddenly became very popular with the girls except for Hermione who still didn't regret dropping it one bit and declared that she'd never liked horses anyway. Harry thought that was rather insulting, but then Professor Firenze couldn't hear them in their common-room and Hermione didn't have his subject.

He saw nothing more of Professor Trellawney after Professor McGonagall led her back up the stairs, but Parvati and Lavender who'd always admired her the most out of his class went up to visit her and reported that she was quite miserable and unwilling to live under the same roof as Professor Umbridge and would probably leave soon. She wasn't pleased with having been replaced by a centaur either, but as Lavender reported she could see why the headmaster had done it.

"It has nothing to do with centaurs being at all good at Divination," Lavender announced proudly. "He's just done it to get back at Professor Umbridge for robbing him of one of his best teachers. Professor Umbridge is deathly afraid of all non-humans, you see."

And indeed she never showed up to inspect Professor Firenze's lessons as far as Harry saw or heard. The centaur had claimed one of the rarely used ground floor classrooms and apparently transfigured it to look just like a clearing in the Forbidden Forest. At first Harry wondered why they didn't simply use the real forest, but that was explained when Professor Firenze darkened the sky so they could see the stars. Of course one couldn't watch the real sky in daylight and going into the forest at night was too dangerous. There were werewolves in there!

Another pleasant change was that unlike Professor Trellawney Professor Firenze didn't expect them to see and certainly not truly. He declared that wizards' sight was much weaker than that of centaurs and even centaurs took many years to master star-gazing. And even then they were often wrong!

Harry was beginning to see why Professor McGonagall had said that Divination was a very inexact branch of magic and Professor Snape had discouraged his students from taking the subject. It did seem rather useless to learn all this stuff when you couldn't get a reliable result. He decided to drop it next year even though it was easier now that he didn't have to see for homework. After all his dreams had turned out not to be visions, but some kind of legilimency and he'd never been able to see anything in tea leaves, crystal balls or cards. Most likely he didn't have the sight after all.

The only useful information Harry thought he had learned at all was that the centaurs believed that the stars foretold a recurrence of the war in the wizarding world. It wasn't really a surprise. Harry had already known that You -Know-Who had returned and was likely to restart the war.

After the first lesson they had with him Professor Firenze kept Harry behind and asked him to give Professor Hagrid a strange message that he refused to explain any further.

For several weeks Harry was unable to deliver it, though, as Professor Umbridge inspected every Care for Magical Creatures lesson and Hermione insisted that he mustn't do or say anything that wasn't a question or answer connected with the creatures they were studying in front of her.

By the time Ron's birthday rolled around he still hadn't found a chance to see Professor Hagrid alone and now the end of the school year and the OWLs were beginning to loom closer. That very day Hannah from Hufflepuff suddenly broke down crying in the middle of a Herbology lesson sobbing that she was too stupid to take exams and wanted to go to the unemployment camp right away. Professor Sprout told her that was nonsense, though and sent her to Madam Pomfrey for a calming drought instead.

Harry hoped that that would help. They didn't see the Hufflepuffs again until dinner that evening and of course then his mind was too full of Ron's birthday celebration to think of Hannah at all.

"Let's at least enjoy the cake first," Draco suggested when Ron reached straight for his birthday letter. "Remember how that thing spoiled Vincent's party?"

"But being all eager to read it will spoil the cake for me as well," Ron returned and tore open the envelope.

His friends stood around him with baited breath. Harry crossed his fingers behind his back. If only Ron's family was nice!

For a moment Ron's face lit up and Harry felt a wave of relief wash over him, but then it fell again and as he read on tears came into his eyes and he began to sniffle.

"Ron?" Harry asked anxiously "What's wrong? Your father isn't a Death Eater as well, is he?"

"No," Ron sobbed "He's ... he's ... really, really ... nice! But he's ... he's dead ... too! And he writes so much about how he's looking forward to meeting me and he never w ... will!"

Vincent silently put his arm around him to comfort him, but he was soon gently pushed aside by Frederick who, together with his twin, enveloped Ron from both sides.

"But Mum's just as eager to meet you," he said. "And you've got us and Percy."

"And Charles and Bill," George added. "You'll love them. They are so cool."

It wasn't until he'd had a good long cry on Frederick's shoulder that Ron perked up, though and started explaining that they were his brothers and they had a little sister as well. Then he brushed all his unopened gifts aside and sat down to write an owl to his mother who worked for the ministry's social services department.

"I've got to meet her as soon as possible," he explained. "She says she can't wait especially after having lost our father so recently. She wants all her family around her."

The next week Harry finally managed to see Hagrid alone for a moment when he had to go back for his hat which Draco had recommended he should forget at the end of his Care for Magical Creatures lesson.

"Oh and Professor Hagrid!" he panted out as an afterthought when the Professor handed it back to him. "Professor Firenze said to tell you that your attempt is not working."

Professor Hagrid stared at him from his one good eye. The other was currently swollen shut. He always had a lot of bruises this year, but Harry didn't want to ask what sort of monster he was raising this time.

"That's what he said," Harry defended himself. "I don't know what it means either, but he said he owes you a favour and that's why he wants you to know that."

"Well, I know what he means alright," Professor Hagrid admitted. "But he's wrong. It's already beginning to show some progress. It's just going very slowly. Got to be patient."

Harry shrugged one more time, but felt relieved that he'd finally fulfilled his mission as promised and could forget all about it now. Professor Hagrid as an adult had to know what he was doing after all and Harry had his OWLs and the next Occlumency lesson to worry about He still hadn't made any progress at closing his mind and Professor Snape was getting really impatient with him.


	28. Chapter 28: Snape's Worst Memory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry is enjoying the DADA club, but Marietta is still a sneak.

Chapter 28: Snape's Worst Memory

 

For once Defense Against the Dark Arts training was great for Harry and that even though he was assigned to work with the sixth years! They were learning to cast the patronus charm and Harry was the only one who managed to do it at the first attempt. Of course he was fully aware that that was only due to the special dementor fighting lessons Professor Lupin had given him in his third year, but it still felt wonderful to be able to do something before Cho for once. Besides Ron also was in their group this time. Cho's friend Marietta had not arrived to the meeting for some reason and so Frederick had had to rearrange the pairings and formed a trio of Ron, Cho and Harry.

"Patronuses are difficult, but very useful," he had explained that choice. "And after all Ron has already had a bad encounter with out of control dementors once. I'm sure he'll be eager to learn this."

George had looked a little doubtful, but had had to concede that there weren't a lot of options with Marietta missing. Gregory shouldn't be made the third member of a group because he needed all the practice he could get and with three people taking turns you simply didn't get as much as with two. So they had assigned him to work with Neville who wasn't as good a teacher as Marietta since the spell they were supposed to practise was still new to him as well, but was very patient and always willing to help.

Cho had just cast a particularly strong looking wisp of silver smoke and Harry turned to Ron expectantly thinking that the shape of her patronus might become visible on the next attempt or the one after that when a shrill whistle interrupted the practise.

"The foe-glas!" Frederick exclaimed.

"It's Professor Umbridge!" George announced after checking the instrument. "She knows. Run!"

They all rushed to the door and tried to squeeze out at the same time. Harry almost got squashed, but somehow he managed to push through to the other side and the pressure reduced as the students dispersed. Harry saw some of them rush through the doors of the nearest bathrooms, but by the time he reached the boys' one others were already coming out again. It wasn't intended to hold that many people at once.

"Library," Cho panted behind him. "Finish essay."

That was an excellent idea and Harry also knew a short-cut thanks to the magical map of the school he'd had until last year. He whisked around a nearby corner and slipped behind a tapestry that hid the dusty little staircase and soon reached the library where he started on an essay for Professor McGonagall.

By the time Professor Umbridge appeared to check for any students that were out of breath he had written two inches and there were three reference books open on the desk in front of him.

"Why Dolores I really didn't pay any attention to when which student came in," he heard Madam Pince tell the inquisitor. "I only make sure that they are quiet and don't damage the books and they have been quite good about that today. I hardly had to do anything at all."

Professor Umbridge had to leave without any prisoners and Harry began to hope that everybody had gotten away.

That hope was disappointed when he returned to the common room with his finished essay, though. There he found Ron, Neville, Seamus and Dean sitting at a table looking extremely worried.

"Professor McGonagall came in earlier and took Hermione away," Neville reported. "She said it was good we were here and not to go out again and asked where you were."

"I said I thought you'd gone to meet a girl," Ron admitted. "Since I last saw you with Cho, and, well, I thought you might say you'd been walking around hand in hand or whatever else one does with a girlfriend."

"I was in the library," Harry retorted somewhat indignantly. "Doing Transfigurations homework."

But Cho had been there, too, and would probably confirm that she'd been tutoring him if he asked her to.

Hermione reappeared not much later, but looked grave when she sat down at their table.

"What happened?" Harry demanded right away.

"Professor Umbridge has found out about the Defense Against the Dark Arts club. She caught the twins, but nobody else and they are refusing to give her any names. Her original source is no use for that either, because I was able to prove her a liar. She said that I was in it and I was able to prove that I'd been studying Arithmancy with Terry in the Great Hall. Professor Dumbledore confirmed that he saw us there and Mr. Filch did, too. Then she demanded to know why I hadn't told her about the club and I claimed I never knew about it until she'd accused me of being in it right now and George promptly asked her how stupid she thought they were to think they'd invite me when the whole school knows I'd told her about your dreams. Frederick said nobody in their right mind would confide anything in me that they didn't want all the adults to know about."

"Well," Harry said. "Then everything's fine."

"No it isn't," Hermione snapped. "Frederick and George have been caught. They'll be expelled for sure!"

And indeed when the twins returned to the common-room hours later it was to pack their things and hug Ron good-bye.

"We're to leave the institute first thing in the morning," Frederick announced.

"Marietta ratted us out," George explained.

"But don't you worry about us," Frederick added. "We never really cared much for taking NEWTs anyway. We donâ€™t need those for what we have in mind."

"And we're not going to some stupid unemployment camp either," George said. "We're going to live with our Mum. She's been lonely since Dad died so you see it's all for the best."

"Except that we're not going to learn any more Defense Against the Dark Arts," Neville said sadly.

"Only if you find yourselves new teachers," Frederick confirmed. "But we'll leave you a gift to remember us by."

And indeed all the next day the strangest fireworks whirred through the castle and somehow it happened that the headmaster had to go away on some urgent business that very day so Professor Umbridge was called to deal with them instead of him.

Harry quite enjoyed the twins' parting show, but all the excitement made it very hard to clear his mind before bed that night and he promptly had another dream of the corridor. The door once again opened and he went through the circular room and through another door until he reached a hall full of shelves that held little glowing spheres.

Professor Snape gave Harry quite a scolding when he confessed to that dream in his next Occlumency lesson.


	29. Chapter 29: Careers Advice

Chapter 29: Careers Advice

 

It was very strange not to have Frederick and George around anymore. They still owled Ron of course, but that only seemed to make him feel their loss the more keenly. He'd only just learned that he had brothers at the school and now they were already gone again.

Harry on the other hand felt the loss of the Defense Against the Dark Arts practise the most strongly. He hadn't realised how much he'd enjoyed those meetings until he'd lost them. Now his only 'extracurricular' activity were the Oclumency lessons and he hated those.

"Can't we really make it remedial Potions?" he ventured to ask Professor Snape after another particularly bad performance. "I'd much rather improve my brewing. I can really do that, I know. Wouldn't that make both of us much happier?"

"We're not here to be happy," the Professor returned. "We're here because you need to learn Occlumency. Now, clear your mind!"

Harry tried, but all he could do was think of how much he wished he could try brewing vanishing solution once again. He'd made such a stupid mistake when they'd brewed it in class and that made him angry. Anger was just the sort of thing that made one particularly vulnerable to legilimency, though, and thus another pathetic failure resulted.

Ron seemed to be away meeting some family member almost every weekend these days leaving Harry feeling oddly lost and alone even though he still had Hermione and his Slytherin friends to hang out with.

In addition to all that misery Draco's birthday was approaching and by now none of them could look forward to a birthday without feeling at least some apprehension. Hadn't the birthday letters spoilt everybody's birthdays this year? At least Hermione's still would have even if she'd been at the institute to open her gifts and have her cake. What if Draco too would be told that his parents were disappointed in him? What if they didn't want to meet him?

"But they're sending you candy every month," Harry reminded him. "That must mean that they are still proud."

"One of them could be dead," Draco said. "Vincent's and Ron's fathers are."

"Wouldn't it be an awful lot of bad luck if four out of the six of us had lost their fathers?" Hermione said. "It seems rather unlikely."

"A lot of people died in the war with You-Know-Who," Draco insisted. "And we were born during it."

"Someone must be alive to send you the candy," Gregory stated and bit a leg off his chocolate frog. "Once you know you can finally thank them."

But when the time came he too happily accepted his slice of birthday cake and didnâ€™t urge Draco to open the envelope that lay next to it on the table.

Draco ate his cake slowly as if to savour every single bite, but Harry could tell that he wasn't really enjoying it. He was too pale and quiet.

Next he opened his presents one by one only moving on to the next after each one had been shown off to his friends and discussed. Harry felt a pang when he saw Draco's brand new shiny green and silver Quidditch gloves, but what would he do with new Quidditch gloves when he didn't even have a broom anymore?

The feeling passed when Draco put down the gloves to open the next gift, a new expensive looking cloak with a water repelling charm for rainy outdoors lessons.

Harry didn't own one of those, but felt no envy this time. He could cast a water repelling charm on his clothes himself after all. Such a cloak was nice, but unnecessary.

Finally the gifts ran out as well, though and Draco was forced to turn to the letter. His hands shook as he opened it, pulled out several sheets of parchment and began to read.

"Oh no," he said after a moment looking miserable.

"What is it?" Vincent asked with concern. "Is your father dead, too?"

"Is he a stupid Muggle?" Gregory asked looking at Hermione.

"No," Draco said miserably. "Much worse than that. He's Lucius Malfoy, that arrogant old Death Eater."

"Well, you don't have to have anything to do with him if you don't want to," Hermione said. "I say this is a clear case for declining to meet one's parents."

Draco nodded, but returned to starting at his parchment ignoring all attempts to cheer him up. So eventually his friends retreated hoping that he'd get over it if left alone to think it through. Harry and Ron started a game of chess and were deeply engrossed in it when suddenly Draco gave a whoop of joy, jumped up and slung his arms around Harry.

"What the?" Harry asked completely confused.

"My mother!" Draco exclaimed. "They're separated and she married your father, so we're brothers! ... Sort of."

"But my father's dead," Harry reminded him. He had to be! It couldn't be that horrid Auror Potter! That would be just as bad as having Lucius Malfoy for one's father.

"No, he isn't. And he's great. I'm going to write them and ask whether I can call him Dad. Oh I do hope the candy came from them!"

"Then Harry would have gotten some, too," Vincent pointed out, but Draco was much too excited to listen.

Harry did get some candy a few days later, but not from his parents or aunt and uncle. Ron brought it back from his latest meeting with his mother and brothers.

"Mum told me to give an Easter Egg to every friend who doesn't know his parents yet, or has lost them or isn't loved by them," he explained while handing them out. "So here's one for Harry and one for Hermione and one for Gregory and one for Vincent and one for Neville."

"And what about me?" Draco protested.

"Why, you have your mother," Ron explained.

"So does Vincent!"

"Yes, but he has lost his father. Yours is just an ass-hole. And besides you have a perfectly fine stepfather, too."

Harry wasn't at all sure how he should feel about that. If Draco's stepfather was his father, then Draco's mother was his stepmother. He did like the idea of being Draco's brother, but he still wished he could have dead hero parents and a loving Muggle aunt and uncle.

At least he found career advice much easier than everybody else. While his classmates deliberated over all sorts of leaflets Harry simply walked into Professor McGonagall's office at the appointed time.

"We already talked about it," he reminded her. "I still want to be a medical brewer."

"And you still want to aim for nurse as your alternate goal, if you don't get the required OWL grades?" the Professor asked.

Harry nodded earnestly.

"And a gardener if I'm too bad for that as well," he added.

They both ignored Professor Umbridge's presence in the room entirely.


	30. Chapter 30: Grawp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Why should it always be Harry? Hagrid reveals his secret to somebody else.

Chapter 30: Grawp

 

After an initial shocked quiet over the expulsion of Frederick and George the institute seemed to go crazy as students of every house and year vied for the position of worst troublemaker. This however looked likely to remain in the insubstantial hands of Peeves the poltergeist for some time to come.

Peeves seemed to be everywhere and pranking everybody, though his favourite targets appeared to be Professor Umbridge and Mister Filch. Or perhaps those two were simply the least skilled at stopping him. Either way hardly a day passed on which one of them wasn't seen chasing the giggling and jeering poltergeist through the corridors of the institute.

Harry knew that he shouldn't enjoy this and he did manage to feel a little sorry for Mr. Filch who as a squib was as defenceless as a Muggle after all. Professor Umbridge however had been the one to take his broom away and besides she was the Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. Even stuttering Professor Quirrel and incompetent Professor Lockhart had been able to command some respect from the poltergeist. Professors Moody and Lupin had dealt with him quite casually. What then were they to think of a Defense Against the Dark Arts professor who couldn't deal with Peeves?

"Someone should bring a cage full of Cornish Pixies into her class," Seamus suggested. "Then we could get a direct comparison of her abilities and Lockhart's."

"I'd rather not go through the pixie incident again," Neville said however. "Especially not when she's likely to forbid us doing any magic of our own to deal with them."

As it turned out there was no need to go to such lengths anyway, as the very next day somebody managed to smuggle a niffler into her office resulting in a lecture on bringing dangerous magical creatures onto the grounds at dinner that evening.

"She ought to tell that to Professor Hagrid, not us," Draco said indignantly.

"Well, if she is going to define nifflers as dangerous," Hermione countered. "I really don't see how he could teach Care for Magical Creatures without bringing any dangerous ones onto the grounds."

"I do," Harry said glumly. "The same way she is teaching us Defence Against the Dark Arts: Make us read the book and never show us a single thing."

"Professor Hagrid?" Ron asked incredulously. "He'd die of boredom."

Harry had to admit that that was probably true, but he wasn't in the best of moods these days. For one thing he was still having the dreams of the Ministry of Magic that made Professor Snape so angry with him. They had now progressed to the point where he turned into a corridor labelled No. 97 and crawled down an isle flanked by shelves of dusty glowing glass spheres. He knew that he needed to get to the end of the isle to find whatever it was that he was looking for, but he always woke up before he reached it.

On those nights on which he didn't have that dream he had nightmares of the OWL exams, especially of failing Potions spectacularly and a very pleased sounding Professor McGonagall telling him that he was to become a nurse now. Harry was beginning to think that he should reconsider that career option after all.

Then there was the next Quidditch game coming up to remind him that he was not allowed to play. It was Gryffindor against Ravenclaw and the most positive thing Harry could find about it was that at least he didn't have the slightest doubt which team he supported since he was no longer on friendly terms with Cho.

That falling out just like the end of the Defense Against the Dark Arts practise meetings and the expulsion of Frederick and George was entirely Marietta's fault. Despite everything that horrible girl had done Cho still insisted that she was her very best friend and that Harry and the others should show a little more empathy because she had done it all to please her mother who worked at the Ministry of Magic.

Harry had asked Cho just what she considered sufficient empathy for someone whose best deed had been to lie about his oldest friend and thus prove herself untrustworthy to both sides and Cho had yelled at him and stalked off and not talked to him since.

Harry didn't really care. She hadn't been as great a friend as he'd imagined she would be last year anyway. He just hoped that Gryffindor would give Ravenclaw a thorough thrashing at the Quidditch game, not just because that would give them a chance to still win the Quidditch cup after all, but also to show Cho.

The chances of that were slim, though. The new beaters had improved only little over the year and Ron was as unreliable as ever.

"Don't let them make you nervous," Hermione told their friend before the game. "You know the Slytherins are going to sing that song again just to make you miss the ball."

"Quaffle," Harry supplied automatically.

Hermione always forgot her Quidditch terminology.

"Quaffle," Hermione repeated just as automatically. "It's all because they'll win the cup if you lose this game, so never mind them."

Ron nodded miserably and slouched off to the broom shed to get his broom.

"It'll be a disaster," Harry predicted gloomily as soon as he was out of earshot.

But to everybody's surprise and the Gryffindors' delight it wasn't. Even though Ron did miss the occasional Quaffle shot and the Slytherins sang lustily every time, he didn't let it bother him and stopped more shots than he missed. By the end of the game it was the Gryffindors that were singing 'Ronald is our King' and the Slytherins that looked dejected.

They carried Ron back to the common-room in triumph and had a huge party there. Harry almost forgot all his worries until near curfew when Ginevra sidled up to him as he was resting in a corner after having danced himself to exhaustion.

"Harry, can I trust you with a secret?" she asked. "A really big and dangerous one that I can't tell the professors or prefects? Well, I can tell Professor Hagrid, but it's really his secret to start with and ... and I need advice and you and Ron have always been so nice to me ..."

"Of course," Harry said remembering that she was Ron's little sister and that the twins had asked them to look after her.

"Well, while we were playing Quidditch Professor Hagrid came and took Luna and Colin into the forest. You know they are my best friends, don't you? And he told them ... Well, Professor Umbridge suspects him of having hidden that niffler in her office and now he thinks she'll get him fired for sure and he has that little half-brother that he's been hiding in the forest. Only he's a full giant and really dangerous and he doesn't speak English. And he wants us to care for that monster when he's gone, but we're scared. And then the centaurs came and made terrible threats as well, so ... we don't know what to do about it."

Neither did Harry, but ...

"Well so far Professor Hagrid is still here and he is innocent of the niffler attack, isn't he? Most likely he won't get fired at all, so you won't have to do anything," was all Harry could think of to say to reassure her.


	31. Chapter 31: OWLs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: The Aurors have to clear up a few points about nifflers.

Chapter 31: OWLs

 

Ron was of course very delighted with being the hero of the Quidditch game and couldn't talk about anything other than the match for days, but the school year was nearing its end and the exam days closed in on them before they knew it. This year it was the OWLs not normal exams and Hermione soon began to nag them to study.

Harry was secretly glad of the change of topic and really put some effort into his studying this year, but Ron found it very hard to keep his attention on his notes. Even Professor Snape agreed to interrupt their Occlumency lessons to give Harry more time for revision.

And then, one morning a group of unfamiliar adult witches and wizards arrived.

"That's Griselda Marchbanks," Neville whispered to Harry pointing at the witch in the lead. "Anatol told me she's the head of the OWL and NEWT examination commission last year."

"Examination commission?" Ron gasped. "Do you mean they will be watching our exams?"

"Why yes," Neville said. "They'll be the ones examining us."

Harry, too, paled at those news. "You mean it won't be our professors as always? Did you know that, Hermione?"

"Why of course," Hermione replied without looking up from her book. "Didn't you?"

No, Harry hadn't. It was a very frightening idea to be examined by someone who had no experience with children outside of such exams. Would they expect them to be more or less mature than children their age usually were? Would they ask him to do spells they'd never even been taught?

At least they all looked very old and had probably done this several times before, so hopefully they did know what spells he was and wasn't likely to know. Maybe past years had been better, though? From the way Professor Snape spoke to them in class Harry was pretty sure that that was true for Potions at the very least.

Luckily the exams started with some written tests and they all felt a little more confident after those. Harry was relieved to find that he recognised all the questions as referring to something he'd been taught at some point and was able to write something connected to the topic on each of them. Surely, Harry thought, one couldnâ€™t fail entirely if one had written something on every question.

After lunch the practical exams started. Harry was surprised to see that the commission actually split up and each student only had to face one of the members rather than the whole intimidating body. Instead of Madam Marchbanks herself Harry got Professor Tofty a surprisingly nice old wizard who seemed quite pleased with his wand-work and gave Harry so much confidence that when the examiner asked him whether he could do any other spells that he felt particularly proud of or enjoyed more than others and would like to demonstrate for extra credit Harry dared to suggest "The partonus charm?"

"You can do a patronus charm?" Professor Tofty said quite surprised. "Please do demonstrate."

Harry did and everybody looked up as his big silver dog patronus bounded happily through the hall.

"Why, that is a fully corporeal patronus!" Professor Tofty exclaimed obviously impressed. "Did you learn this in Charms or Defence Against the Dark Arts?"

"Neither," Harry admitted. "Professor Lupin taught me in private tutoring lessons in third year after the dementors made me fall off my broom during a Quidditch game. Does it still count as extra credit?"

"In third year!" the examiner exclaimed.

"Yes, they were here to recapture Peter Pettigrew. He'd escaped from Azkaban and was pretending to be a pet rat."

But the professor didn't seem all that interested in the adventure story and sent Harry on to the wandless practical tasks for Potions and Divination. Harry's potion turned out a little too thin, but he thought it was good enough to pass, though he could probably kiss his ambitions to become a medical brewer good-bye.

The star chart drawing for Astronomy was however disrupted by a terrible scene. Apparently somebody had snuck another niffler into Professor Umbridge's office and she had called the Aurors to arrest Professor Hagrid for it. There was quite a yelling match outside the great Hall where the fifth years were working and when he went outside to loosen up a bit before sitting down for the History of Magic test Ginevra told Harry that some spells had been cast as well.

"The headmaster soon put an end to that, though,"she assured him. "And the Aurors had to admit that there was neither any proof that Professor Hagrid had had anything to do with it nor is there any law against owning nifflers or putting them wherever one likes. They confirmed that they are not classified as dangerous and Professor Hagrid has every right to keep them as teaching material."

Harry sighed. He thought he'd probably messed up the star chart because of the noise, but at least History of Magic was his very last exam and then he'd be able to rest.

He found it quite difficult to keep the names and dates straight during the exam and was so awfully tired that he couldn't concentrate anymore.

And then all of a sudden his scar was hurting again and he was once again wandering down that corridor and through the door and on to the hall with the shelves of glowing spheres.

This time he had a prisoner with him, though and had come to torture him into picking up one of the spheres, because he himself couldn't touch it.

The prisoner refused to obey him, though. What did that fool think he was doing? As if it would be such a big thing to pick up that stupid ball!

Well, if he wouldn't do it then Harry would just have to kill him for it.

He raised his wand and cast Avada Kedavra and just then the prisoner looked up and Harry recognised his secret uncle Sirius. He fell out of his chair in the Great Hall with a scream of horror.


	32. Chapter 32: Out of the Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry goes to the Ministry, but lands his friends in a very uncomfortable situation on the way. Luckily Ginevra has a good excuse ready ... or is it that good?

Chapter 32: Out of the Fire

 

Professor Tofty rushed to Harry's side to pick him up right away and it took some time to reassure him that he was alright.

"I'm just so exhausted after all those exams. I must have nodded of and slipped off the chair," Harry tried to explain it away.

"Of course," Professor Tofty said understandingly. "You've had a very long and draining day. You should go straight to bed and rest."

Harry promised to do that since it got him let out of the exam early and then rushed straight to the headmaster's office.

But Professor Dumbledore was nowhere to be found and when he asked for Professor McGonagall he learned that she had been injured in the crossfire during the niffler altercation while Professors Flitwick and Snape were still in the Great Hall helping to supervise the exams. There was nobody he could send to the Ministry to rescue Uncle Sirius!

The only thing Harry could do was go himself, but how could he get there?

Eventually Hermione and Draco came out of the Great Hall, but they didn't know either and Hermione even doubted whether it was the right thing to do at all.

"Hermione it's the only thing we can do! We must get to the Ministry before it's too late."

"Professor Umbridge's office," a serene voice interrupted his tirade.

Harry whirled around and noticed Luna and Ginevra for the first time.

"What?"

"Professor Umbridge's office," Luna repeated patiently. "Her floo is connected to the Ministry. You'll get there that way, but Professor Hagrid won't like it."

Harry really couldn't care less what Professor Hagrid did and didn't like right then. He had to save his secret uncle Sirius!

Luckily the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor was having another altercation with Peeves the poltergeist which would probably keep her away from her office for a little while and it wouldn't take long just to throw some floo powder into the fireplace and step in.

The five students ran to the Defence Against the Dark Arts office as quickly as they could, though Hermione panted something about "What ... do ... get ... there?"

Harry had no time to try to figure out what she meant. They had to get to Uncle Sirius after all and obviously that was what they were going to do in Professor Umbridge's office.

It wasn't until he'd rushed into and through the room and was standing in front of the fireplace that he realised that things weren't quite as easy as that.

"Whereâ€™s the floo powder?" he demanded of his friends. "Where does she keep the floo powder?"

"I don't know!" Hermione returned slightly hysterically. "I only report to her once a day. I don't tidy her office."

"But haven't you ever seen her floo someone?" Draco asked. "Try to remember!"

"No, I haven't!" Hermione shouted. "We shouldn't do this. It's wrong!"

"But we have to!" Harry shouted back and started to frantically tear open drawers and cabinet doors.

"You'll regret it," Luna said opening a pretty pink box and holding it out to Harry.

It did indeed contain floo powder! Harry grabbed a handful and had just thrown it in when the office door opened and Professor Umbridge walked in.

For just a moment teacher and students stood and stared at each other in surprise. Then Harry remembered his Uncle Sirius and the desperate danger he was in. He couldn't afford to waste any time on Professor Umbridge!

So he jumped into the fire shouting "The Ministry!"

The flames flared up and he was gone just before Professor Umbridge's hasty "Extinguo!" extinguished the fire and rendered the box of floo powder Luna was still holding in her hands useless as a means of escape for the rest of the students.

"What," Professor Umbridge demanded. "Is the meaning of this? How dare you break into my office!"

"We didn't!" Hermione replied white as a sheet. "We ... um ... I .. I came to ... report. We had to ... you weren't here ... I ... I ..."

"Professor Hagrid has a giant hidden in the Forbidden Forest," Ginevra declared loud and clearly to everybody's surprise. "He showed Luna a while ago, but said she mustn't tell anyone and he's an adult so we didnâ€™t dare at first. But we were so awfully scared of the giant that we finally decided to ask some older children what we should do. We chose Hermione because she's always nice to us and knows so much."

Luna nodded earnestly as if the story weren't entirely new to her and Draco and Hermione hastily followed her example.

"And Hermione said that giants are really dangerous and we must inform the Ministry as quickly as possible," Ginevra continued. "But I didn't know how to reach the Ministry and so I asked Hermione again and she said you'd be sure to be able to reach them quickly. So we ran right here, but you weren't there and ... well, I think we may have panicked a bit and decided to floo to the Ministry and tell them ourselves. Only it took us a while to find the floo powder and we're really really sorry we made such a mess."

"We'll tidy it up again right away, of course," Hermione added hastily. "And ... and you needn't worry about Harry, because he's just flooed to the Ministry and he'll tell the first person he meets there about the giant and I'm sure they'll make sure he gets back here and doesn't cause any trouble."

"A giant, you say?" Professor Umbridge gasped.

Ginevra nodded. "A really huge scary one."

"In the Forbidden Forest? You've seen it?"

"Yes Professor," said Luna. "It was very, very terrible."

"Show me! Lead me there at once," Professor Umbridge demanded. "This time they'll have to arrest that filthy half-breed for sure!"


	33. Chapter 33: Fight and Flight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: A little chapter from Luna's POV

Chapter 33: Fight and Flight

 

"They won't send him right back," Luna told Hermione. "And it's not at all safe there."

But Hermione only shushed her. People did that a lot.

"I know it's a place for adults and he shouldn't have gone there," she said looking a Luna, but Luna could tell that she was really talking to Professor Umbridge. "But the giant is a much bigger problem. It could attack the institute at any time."

"He," said Ginevra. "He's a male giant, Professor Hagrid said."

"It is a monster," Professor Umbridge corrected gripping her wand so tightly her fingers were all white.

Luna could have told her that her wand wasn't going to help her anyway. She could also have told her that there was no need to worry about the giant. But Hermione didn't want her to do that and they did have to get into the forest if they were going to ride thestrals and Luna had been looking forward to the ride for a while now.

They led the Professor down the stairs and out onto the grounds. Luna felt a pang of guilt when they passed Professor Hagrid's hut, but it was too late now and he had brought a giant into the country against the law. He would have to suffer the consequences.

Ginevra led them into the forest.

"Which way?" Hermione asked when they came to the crossroads.

Ginevra looked at Luna a little doubtfully for a moment. Was she considering getting them lost so the Professor wouldn't actually see the giant? That would be a vain attempt, Luna could tell. Whatever they did at this point, Hagrid's fate was clear in her sight now. It could not be altered by any of the decisions they still had to make. She nodded at her friend.

"The left path. Don't worry, all will be well."

Ginevra was going to misinterpret that most likely. She'd think that Luna had seen that no harm would come to anyone, but Luna couldn't change that. If Ginevra accused her of lying later, she'd say she'd been talking about themselves and Harry. Then Ginevra would assume that she hadn't seen Hagrid's fate at all and would stop blaming her.

"You have to walk quietly," Ginevra told them. "There are a lot of dangerous creatures in the forest and Professor Hagrid isn't here to protect us."

Unfortunately Hermione didn't seem to be any good at sneaking. She made even more noise now than she had when she'd been walking normally.

Professor Umbridge's wand hand was trembling, but Luna wasn't scared. She knew that none of them would die today.

"How much further?" the Professor asked when they came to another side path and Luna turned down it to take them even deeper into the forest.

"Not much, I think," Ginevra said.

"He's a giant, not a tree, you see," Draco explained. "He moves around. That's exactly why he's so dangerous. There's no telling where exactly he is right now."

"That's why we were so scared when Luna and Ginevra told us," Hermione added. "He could happen to move in the direction of the institute at any moment."

"You'll need to call the Aurors to remove him, though," Luna warned the Professor. "He's too big for you alone. I think Harry did the best thing after all."

Except that if Harry had actually met any Aurors he'd have told them there were Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries, not a giant in the Forbidden Forest. They were on their own now.

"We'll just take a look," Professor Umbridge said with an unsteady voice. "Just to make sure it really is a giant. Then we'll run right back to the castle and ..."

They never got that far of course, because at that moment the centaurs appeared.

"We're just going to show the Professor the giant," Luna tried to reassure the angry herd. "So the Aurors can remove him. You want him gone, too, don't you?"

But she should have known it would be no use. Professor Umbridge insulted the centaurs and Hermione said all the wrong things. Luckily the giant interfered just in time before they could carry them all off and the centaurs took off with only the Professor and being chased by the giant.

Now Luna felt even more guilty for giving him away to the Ministry. Most likely his fate would be even worse than that of the Care for Magical Creatures professor.

But there was nothing Luna could do to change it anymore now and it was finally time to take the thestral ride. It was not an easy task to convince the others to try and even harder to find and mount the thestrals when none of them could actually see the animals.

Still Luna managed. She had always had a good hand for magical creatures.


	34. Chapter 34: The Department of Mysteries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Let's have a look what Harry is doing at the Ministry of Magic while Professor Umbridge is annoying the centaurs.

Chapter 34: The Department of Mysteries

 

Harry tumbled out of the floo head-first landing sprawled on the expensive carpet in front of the fireplace in the Minister's opulent office. He sat up hastily wiping the soot off his face and looked around, but the office appeared to be empty. What a stroke of luck!

He got up already feeling a little less panicky, but then the door was thrown open quite vehemently and in came ...

"Percy!"

The young man stared at the filthy boy in surprise.

"Harry? What in the world are you doing here? And looking like that! No, don't wipe your hands on the ..."

"Percy, they're in the Department of Mysteries and they've got Unc ... Auror Black! We have to save him!"

"The Department of ... but Harry! The carpet!"

But Harry had already dashed out of the room past the bewildered Percy. This took him into Percy's own, much less ostentatious office. Harry glanced around, saw another door, tore it open and rushed through it as well.

Outside was a brightly lit corridor that he had never seen before. His dreams hadn't prepared him for this!

"Which way to the Department of Mysteries? Hurry Percy!"

"Harry you can't just barge in here," Percy scolded. "You got the Minister's carpet all dirty. We have to clean it and then find a way to get you back to the institute without anyone finding out or you will be in a lot of trouble. The Minister is only looking for some reason to get you removed from the wizarding world. You don't want to be cast out and forced to live like a Muggle, do you?"

"I don't care," Harry said. "It's worth it if I can save Auror Black. We have to get to the Department of Mysteries before they kill him."

"Very well," Percy said. "I will alert the Aurors to check the Department of Mysteries, but then we have to clean the carpet."

Harry hesitated. The Aurors were a lot more qualified to deal with You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters than he and Percy were, but what if they sent Auror Potter, the Death Eater who'd probably been the one to lure Uncle Sirius into You-Know-Who's trap?

What if there were more Death Eater agents among the Aurors?

"Wait Percy!" he called out, but while he had hesitated Percy had already gone to another door and knocked.

There was no answer so Percy opened it and found nobody inside.

"That's strange," Percy said. "I wonder where Colin could have gone."

Then he crossed the room and knocked on the other door there. Again there was no answer.

"Auror Scrimgour?" Percy called knocking again, but there still was no answer. So he finally opened this door as well.

Another empty office.

They went down the corridor trying door after door and finding nobody until finally in a very small and shabby office at the end of the corridor they met a young witch who was sorting mail.

"Do you have any idea where all the Aurors have gone Amalthea?" Percy asked her. "Only, there's a young wizard here that thinks he's seen someone suspicious sneak towards the Department of Mysteries again and there was no sign of the guard posted there."

Amalthea had heard them go out about half an hour ago. On some mission she supposed. She didn't know where or when they would be back, though.

Percy asked her to alert the first Auror that she saw when they returned and finally reluctantly agreed to accompany Harry to the Department of Mysteries.

"It'll be alright to enter the corridor and talk to the guard if I'm with you," he declared brushing Harry's wild hair over his scar. "We'll tell them you were coming to see me and thought you saw someone suspicious head that way. You've read about the attempts to break into the department in the Daily Prophet and are worried. So we decided to inform the guard. He'll do the rest."

When they came out of the elevator Harry finally recognised the place. Now they were in the very corridor that he had seen in his dreams. He ran down it and to the door.

"Wait Harry! There's a guard posted here!" Percy shouted after him, but there was nobody to be seen or to stop him.

Harry threw open the door and entered the circular room, but when the door closed behind him the room started to spin and he didn't know which door to use next. While he was still staring at them Percy burst through one of them looking frightened and confused.

"The guard really is gone!"

Harry had no time to spare for him, though. He raced for the door opposite the one Percy had come through, but before he could reach it the room spun again and when it stopped the room in front of him led into a room full of brains in tanks.

He and Percy left again and tried another door. This one led them into a room with a whispering veil that Percy drew Harry away from quite forcefully saying it was highly dangerous.

The next try took them back into the room with the brains.

"We need to mark the doors," Percy declared. "And keep trying until we find the exit."

When they returned this time they almost collided with Hermione, Draco, Ginevra and Luna who told them a strange story of riding thestrals to the Ministry to rescue Harry and finding the atrium even more deserted than the offices upstairs had been. They hadn't even been able to have their wands examined as one was supposed to when entering the Ministry!

"We have to find the way back out of here and alert the Aurors," Percy decided, but after a few more tries what they did find was the door that led to the room Harry recognised from his dream and he led them on to the storage place of the glowing spheres running until he reached the spot where You-Know-Who had been torturing Uncle Sirius in his last dream.

"They're gone!" he exclaimed horrified when he found nobody there. "Oh where could they have taken him?"

He ran up and down a few of the corridors, but they were all empty. Still perhaps the next one? What would he do if he turned around the next corner and found Uncle Sirius' dead body on the ground?

He didn't though and finally his friends called him back to the place where You-Know-Who and Uncle Sirius should have been.

"What is it?" Harry demanded out of breath and rather impatient to get back to his search.

He had no time for this. There were so many corridors that he hadn't checked yet!

"There," Daco said pointing at one of the glowing spheres. "That one has your name on it."

"It's a memory sphere," Percy explained. "At least I think that's what it must be. The inscription is rather strange. Maybe it was a gift from someone to somebody else? But then why would it be here? A memory of Harry can't be old enough that the recipient could be dead yet."

"Maybe the memory will explain that?" Hermione suggested. "Is there a pensieve somewhere around here? Then we could have a look at it."

"I don't think so," Percy replied. "Wait Harry, you can't just ..."

But Harry had already picked the memory sphere off its shelf. If it had his full name on it ...

"Excellent. Now give it to me," an unexpected voice ordered before Harry had time to look.


	35. Chapter 35: Beyond the Veil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Death Eaters! And Aurors! And Dumbledore! Things get quite chaotic at the Ministry of Magic.

Chapter 35: Beyond the Veil

 

"Give me the prophecy!" Lucius Malfoy ordered.

Harry took a frightened step backwards clutching the glowing sphere to his chest. For a moment he thought of running away, but adults in black robes and horrid white masks came out of every corridor. Corridors that he had only just checked and found completely deserted! How was that even possible?

"Prophecy?" Harry echoed stupidly while he tried to figure out what to do.

Mr Malfoy clearly was once again working for You-Know-Who and thus an enemy of the Ministry and the law. Obeying him might be illegal. But on the other hand he was still an adult and Harry was a child so disobeying him was bad.

"That'd be theft," Percy stated firmly. "As would be taking it with you, Harry. It does not belong to any of us. You must put it back where you took it from. You should never have picked it up."

Harry hesitated, but then he remembered that Percy was now an adult as well and he wasn't working for You-Know-Who.

He took a step towards the shelf to do as Percy had told him, but a female Death Eater stepped in his way.

"Hand it over!" she ordered.

Harry stepped closer to Percy.

"I'm scared," he admitted softly. "She'll take it if I put it back."

Percy had drawn his wand he noticed and was pointing it at the witch, but then Mr. Malfoy took a step closer and Percy's wand flicked to point at him, then back to the woman. Could he really aim it that quickly? And what about the other Death Eaters? Some of them were behind him and Percy and his friends.

"Grab the children," the woman ordered. "He'll hand it over readily enough once we start torturing them a little."

"Leave them alone!" Percy shouted sounding a lot more scared and desperate than authoritative, though.

The Death Eaters ignored him and lunged for Harry's friends. Ginevra screamed and they jumped and ducked out of the way. For a moment Harry thought that one of the Death Eaters had caught Draco, but he only had hold of a fold of his uniform robe and as Draco struggled away it tore and left the Death Eater holding only a bit of black cloth.

Somebody must have knocked into the shelf behind them. It swayed and then fell over with a loud crash and the sound of breaking glass and then misty figures began to rise from the debris.

Harry felt a sudden shove at his back.

"Run!" Percy yelled and they all dashed madly towards the door more shelves going to pieces all around them though Harry had no idea why. They regained the strange room they'd passed through before and Hermione too drew her wand and tried to fight, so Harry followed her example.

A Death Eater fell and landed with his head in some sort of time machine, but the rest kept following them and Draco got hit by some spell. Harry wanted to run over and check on him, but then Hermione went down as well and there were Death Eaters everywhere and all was confusion.

He fled through another door and somehow ended up in the room with the veil again and then, finally the Aurors burst in to rescue them.

Harry felt relief wash over him when he saw Sirius Black among them, but Auror Potter was with them as well and the Death Eaters didn't just give up, but kept fighting.

Did they really think they could defeat the Aurors?

A pink-haired witch in Auror robes stepped between Harry and the battle and assumed a fighting stance.

"Go," she ordered him without looking at him. "Get out of here!"

"But I can't!" Harry shouted.

"Out of this room! Run! I'll protect you!"

A tall, black Auror had run up to Percy.

"That's enough, Weasley. Good work protecting the kids, but we'll take it from here. Retreat now!"

"The children first!" Percy demanded.

"Go boy!" the pink-haired Auror insisted.

Past her Harry could see the woman Death Eater hit Sirius with a spell that sent him flying through the veil ... only he vanished as he went through and didn't reappear on the other side.

"Noooo! Sirius!" Auror Potter yelled and ran towards the veil to do who knew what to Harry's beloved secret uncle.

Harry had to do something to stop him and protect Uncle Sirius, but what?

The memory of the falling shelves and confusing misty figures flashed through his mind and hoping that it would distract the Death Eaters long enough for Uncle Sirius to get back up and defend himself he threw the prophecy that he was still carrying at Auror Potter with all his might.

Harry could see it hit the man in the head stopping his charge before it crashed to the floor and burst, but then the pink-haired witch grabbed him and started pushing him out the door and he could no longer see the fight, only hear the crashing and screaming.

"It's Dumbledore! Dumbledore's here!" he heard someone shout, but his Auror didn't appear to care. She just kept pushing him along. Somehow she appeared to know which door led back to safety and moments later they had left the Department of Mysteries and he was running down the dark corridor outside it following a pair of stretchers that were levitating along carrying Hermione and Draco and with Ginevra beside him where only a moment ago the Auror had been.

Where had the pink-haired witch gotten to? Harry looked behind him, but saw only Percy who gestured for him to keep going.

"To the elevator!" he shouted. "Harry! We must get out of the building!"

Harry wasn't sure why, but then Percy was an adult and the Aurors were fighting the Death Eaters and they'd never really captured or tortured his secret uncle Sirius at all.

Luna was already waiting at the elevator so their group was complete again as well.

Now if only Draco and Hermione weren't seriously hurt all would be well again.


	36. Chapter 36: The Only one he'd Ever Feared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Harry is Voldemort and Voldemort is Harry ... or are they?

Chapter 36: The Only one he'd Ever Feared

 

The elevator carried them up into the hall that Harry remembered from his dreams. It was just as empty except for them as it was in his dreams as well, but this time it wasn't at all misty.

For the first time Harry could actually see what it looked like. He had always felt that it was big, but had never thought that it could be bigger than the great hall. And there in the middle was the indoor fountain! There were several golden statues in it, all of magical creatures like house elves and centaurs that were looking up at the wizard and witch at the top admiringly.

"I hope the centaurs in the Forbidden Forest never see that," Ginevra said looking at it as well. "They'd be furious."

"Why, what's wrong with it?" Percy asked stopping to look as well. "I've always thought the fountain of magical brethren was quite beautiful and a reminder that we must all stand together."

"It looks more like ..." Ginevra started but was interrupted by the sound of running footsteps behind her.

Harry turned wondering who else was still trying to escape the Death Eaters. Surely those Ministry employees that weren't trained for battle must have evacuated the building at the same time the Aurors had rushed down to join the fight?

"Oh dear," Luna said. "Here comes the murderess."

"Who?" Harry started to ask her but then the Death Eater woman rushed in and caught sight of Harry.

"There you are!" she shrieked. "Give it to me! Give me the prophecy or I'll kill you just like I did Black! ... Or should I do it more slowly? I do like to make it painful, you know."

Killed Black? No. No, it couldn't be true! His secret uncle couldn't be dead.

"He's not dead!" Harry yelled at her.

"Oh yes he is," she returned in a horrid singsong. "Through the veil went Auror Black and he surely won't be baaack!"

"Harry," Percy hissed. "Forget Black. She's insane and dangerous. Just throw the thing at her and run."

"I can't," Harry replied. "I already did. I threw your stupid prophecy away and smashed it! It's gone! You failed!"

He was feeling strange as if he weren't really here and his scar was hurting again.

"Liar!" shrieked the Death Eater. "Give it to me!"

"I just told you I no longer have it! Ask You-Know-Who if you don't believe me. He already knows and he's furious at you. You failed him and he is coming to punish you!"

"Harry?" Percy's voice sounded strange and far away. "Harry!"

"He's coming through Harry," Luna stated. "Better get away from him."

"Through?" Percy gasped.

"Possession!" Ginevra wailed. "Like he possessed me, too!"

"No, that's alright," said Luna. "We just have to step away a little."

That was the last thing Harry heard before the pain in his head flared up more vehemently than ever before. It felt as if his scar would burst and he screamed and Voldemort screamed and all of a sudden Harry knew that Bellatrix Black Lestrange had told him the truth. Whoever fell through that horrible veil in the Department of Mysteries died. He knew because Voldemort did, just like he knew that the woman Death Eater was called Bellatix Black Lestrange, because Voldemort did, because Harry was Voldemort and Voldemort was Harry.

And Harry screamed, because Sirius, the only person in the world to whom he'd been special was dead.

And Voldemort screamed because Harry screamed, but why? Why was Harry screaming? It hurt. It hurt terribly, but Voldemort didn't understand why it hurt. Sirius Black was dead. So what? What did that matter to Harry or Voldemort? What did it matter to anyone except Sirius Black?

Voldemort didn't even understand and somehow that made it hurt Harry even more, even though Harry was Voldemort ... or maybe because Harry was Voldemort. The pain became unbearable until with a last horrified scream Voldemort fled and Harry fell into darkness.

When he came around again Harry found that for the first time in months his head didn't hurt the slightest little bit. You-Know-Who was gone. Bellatrix Black Lestrange was nowhere to be seen and neither were Luna, Ginevra or the stretchers carrying Draco and Hermione.

Percy was still there standing silently half a step behind the Minister of Magic who was looking frightened and bewildered. There were several other wizards and witches with the Minister, but Harry had no idea who they were.

The only other person in the huge room he recognised was Headmaster Albus Dumbledore who was standing among the shattered debris of what had once been the fountain of magical brethren.

For a moment Harry felt sorry that it had been ruined, but then he remembered that Ginevra had said that the centaurs had better not see it and decided that maybe it was for the best.

The headmaster noticed that Harry was moving and came over to him.

"Well Harry," he said twinkling just the same as he did when having a nice little chat at the head table after dinner. "That certainly was very brave of you, but you shouldn't have left the institute grounds. If you had just told a Professor we could have alerted the Aurors without endangering any children."

"But we couldn't tell Professor Umbridge," Harry mumbled his protest. "It was a vision. She doesn't believe in those."

And then he remembered that the vision had been false and the prophecy had been destroyed because he had believed it. There may have been Death Eaters in the Department of Mysteries, but neither You-Know-Who nor Auror Black had really been there. Not before Harry had rushed there to rescue his secret uncle at least. And now Uncle Sirius was dead.

"He's dead," Harry told the headmaster, eyes wide.

"Who is?"

"Auror Black. He's ... dead."

"Yes Harry, so he is," the headmaster confirmed. "It isn't your fault, though. It was his duty to risk his life to defend the Ministry. Auror is a terribly dangerous profession. Now, take this portkey."

Harry did and with a sudden jerk the Ministry of Magic disappeared.


	37. Chapter 37: The Lost Prophecy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: Albus Dumbledore explains some things.

Chapter 37: The Lost Prophecy

 

To his surprise Harry landed alone in the headmaster's office instead of with his friends. Well, Hermione and Draco had probably been taken to the hospital wing to have their injuries treated. But where were Ginevra and Luna? They hadn't been hurt ... or had they?

What had happened while he'd been unconscious? The portraits of the former headmasters didn't know and there was nobody else here to ask.

By the time Headmaster Dumbledore returned Harry had worked himself into quite a state and burst out with his questions forgetting all politeness.

"Oh, no need to worry, not in the least," Professor Dumbledore assured him. "The little girls ... Ginevra and Luna, did you say? ... have been returned to their dorms where they belong at this time of night, Hermione has been enervated, but will probably spend the night in the hospital wing and rejoin you tomorrow. ... Not that you ought to be able to tell the difference since she ought to be in her dorm and you in yours. Draco will have to spend a few days in the hospital wing but should be fine as well. But now, please do explain to me how Voldemort managed to lure you into the Department of Mysteries and what you did to drive him out of your mind. I must say I never thought a fifteen year old wizard could have the power to fight him that effectively, especially since what you did quite obviously wasn't Occlumency."

"I had another vision," Harry confessed. "I saw him torturing Uncle ... Auror Black."

"Uncle?" the headmaster asked pointedly.

Harry hung his head in shame.

"He asked me to call him that," he admitted. "And to write to him and pretend that we were related. He doesn't ... didn't have any children of his own and he wanted one very much, I think. I know I shouldn't have, but I only realised how bad it was after I'd been doing it for a while and then Uncle Sirius didn't want to let me stop. And I didn't want to stop against his will. He ... it ... I ... I didn't know which was more wrong and my friends said it would be better to continue. I didn't dare ask an adult since I knew I'd done very wrong and would be punished."

"Why was it wrong to call him uncle and write to him if he'd asked you to?" the headmaster asked gently. "It sounds like he liked it and wasnâ€™t at all bothered by it."

"That's what he said, too," Harry said relieved that the headmaster at least shared Uncle Sirius' view of the matter. Perhaps he wouldnâ€™t punish him too badly after all? "But it made me feel special, like there was somebody out there to whom I was worth more than other children and it made him feel special to me. It ... I can't explain it, but it felt so very good."

To his surprise Professor Dumbledore merely smiled and nodded.

"You don't have to explain it," he said. "I know exactly what you mean and it is perfectly normal."

"You do?" Harry asked hardly believing his ears. "It is?"

"Oh yes," the headmaster said. "I ... Well, you see, I am a very old man. When I was born nursery institutes had only just been invented by the Muggles and even many Muggle parents were still sceptical of them and did not send their children there if they could afford to keep them with them instead. As for us wizards, we didn't even have any institutes. I grew up with my parents and siblings always knowing that I was special to them and that they were very special to me and nobody thought it in the least wrong. It was the most natural thing in the world. It made me feel safe and protected and strong. It gave me the courage to face all the big and small challenges life confronted me with, from having to walk to the shop around the corner alone for the very first time to mortal combat with Grindelwald. Family members loved each other. That was the most natural thing in the world. We are all born craving that love and it is perhaps the biggest tragedy of our time that so many of us no longer get to experience that kind of love. It damages one in ways that ... Well, Voldemort himself is probably one of the very best examples."

Harry stared at the headmaster wide-eyed. He'd really been raised by his parents? Of course Harry had known that that had been the custom a very long time ago, but until now it had always felt like tales from a very distant world, just like stories about Merlin or Julius Caesar. He'd never thought that there could still be people alive today that had seen and remembered such times.

"Voldemort was born about a generation after me. Institutes had become accepted in the Muggle world by then, but they still weren't used by everybody and we were still debating whether to establish a wizarding institute at all. They had just turned Beauxbattons in France into one and Germany had had one for a while, but the Italian and Eastern European wizards were still set vehemently against them and while we did have a problem housing Muggle-borns that came to Hogwarts from such institutes during the summer many of us still expected them to be a passing craze. Voldemort, or rather Tom Riddle as he was called then, came to us not from one of the normal institutes, but from an orphanage, a special institute that raised children whose parents had died. In fact, it had been his birth that had killed his mother and his father never wanted anything to do with him, so unlike most of the other orphans there he had never experienced being loved before his arrival. And unlike today's children from normal institutes he also never had the comfort of knowing that he would get the chance to meet his parents someday and perhaps be loved by them then. He knew they were dead. Even the institute children of that time still knew who their parents were. They could write to them or use a Muggle artefact called a telephone to talk with them. Sometimes their parents would visit on weekends they didn't have to work on. Tom saw all this, but never experienced it himself, and that hurt him and made him angry, made him want to hurt others as well. And so he started his campaign of hatred, torture and murder."

The headmaster paused and then added almost casually: "Don't you think that it is interesting that most of those who joined him are people who received very little attention from their parents as well?"

Harry did not. He was beginning to feel tired and thus was much more interested in telling the headmaster the rest of his experiences that day.

"Ah, of course," Albus Dumbledore said when he told how it had felt to be You-Know-Who when he'd tried to posses Harry. "I should have realised that when you told me of your relationship with Auror Black. You had experienced family love and when you realised that the man who'd loved you was dead that feeling and the pain of losing it were uppermost in your mind. Of course nothing could have hurt Voldemort more. It is no wonder he fled. I doubt he will ever try again after that experience."

And he smiled and twinkled and despite the fact that Uncle Sirius had died was put into such a good mood that he even told Harry what the prophecy that he'd lost when he'd thrown it at Auror Potter's head had been.

"But I think we'd better tell Auror Potter that you threw it to prevent him from following his partner through the veil and not because you suspected him of being a Death Eater. He'd never forgive you that mistake," the headmaster decided. "He is a very brave and proud Auror, Harry. Someone to look up to even if he can be a very harsh and heartless man at times. He is of an entirely institute raised generation of wizards, you know. He did not get enough parental love."


	38. Chapter 38: The Second War Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Notes: The Aurors and Professor Dumbledore take care of the loose ends at the institute, but there are a lot more open ends at the Ministry.

Chapter 38: The Second War Begins

 

The next day Professor Dumbledore walked into the Forbidden Forest and returned with Professor Umbridge, though the students saw very little of her after that. The sixth years didn't even have any Defence Against the Dark Arts exams at all and some students grumbled that the professor really could have gotten herself lost in the forest a few days sooner so everybody would have been spared the exams.

Harry didn't care though. It wouldn't have affected his exam by Professor Tofty either way so it didnâ€™t make a difference to him.

Draco confirmed that Professor Umbridge had been taken straight to the hospital wing and had spent the rest of the day and one night there. On the morning of the seventh years' exam day she'd left, but Harry had not seen her either at breakfast or lunch.

In the afternoon however a large group of Aurors arrived to arrest Professor Hagrid and then disappeared into the forest to 'take care of the giant' as the big black Auror informed Professor McGonagall who'd come outside to order the students back into the castle.

"This is not a show for children to watch. An Auror operation can get very dangerous and you don't want to get in the way of a stray spell," she declared.

Harry thought that since he was almost sixteen and had already fought Death Eaters himself this ought not to apply to him and wanted to duck out of sight, but Hermione dragged him right over to the professor to ask when they would receive their OWL results and whom she ought to report to now if Professor Umbridge didn't return.

The Professor practically shooed them inside first, but did come to talk to them once she was sure all students were out of harm's way.

"You'll get your results in time to make your new schedules, don't worry," she assured them. "And no,Professor Umbridge will not return for the next school year. I believe the headmaster already has a replacement in mind and is making the required provisions as we speak. As for reporting, I think you can consider yourself free of that obligation unless the Ministry sends some notification to the contrary. I doubt they will, though. They have enough bigger problems on their hands right now."

"You mean because of all the damage from the fight?" Harry asked remembering the broken statue.

"Well, I suppose they will have to deal with that as well," the professor agreed. "But it is a small matter compared to the vote of no confidence for the Minister, a possible new election and the measures to be taken to fight You-Know-Who."

"But I thought the Ministry doesn't believe that he has returned," Harry reminded her. "Why would they be taking measures?"

"Why, they can't go on denying that now that he has actually been seen in the Ministry itself and they have captured several Death Eaters that will confirm his return during their trials. In fact the Daily Prophet is already full of warnings and protection tips for the magical population."

They went upstairs to Harry's dorm which had a window that looked out onto the forest, but all they could see from there were some wobbling trees and sparks flying overhead. Even that soon stopped but the Aurors did not reappear at the edge of the forest. Apparently they had left it elsewhere and apparated away.

"It does make sense," Hermione said. "After all one canâ€™t apparate on the institute grounds so it would only delay them to come back here."

Harry wondered whether they had killed or merely captured the giant and whether any Aurors had been hurt or killed in the process. It didn't worry him as much as such things used to when it had been his secret uncle Sirius going on a mission, though. After all these Aurors were all strangers. Uncle Sirius could not be with them. He was dead.

That evening he took out his communication mirror from Uncle Sirius one last time and remembered the many secret calls he had made on past evenings. Of course there was no answer now, though.

Why, oh why, hadn't he thought of calling Sirius on the mirror after he'd had that vision of him in the Department of Mysteries? Uncle Sirius would have replied and Harry would have known that he wasn't really there and would never have gone to the Ministry and walked into the Death Eaters' trap. There would have been no fight, Uncle Sirius would not have died, the Ministry not been damaged. Ginevra would not have had to tell that Professor Hagrid was hiding a giant in the Forbidden Forest. Professor Hagrid would not have been arrested.

Professor Umbridge would not have gone into the forest and would not have left the institute. Hermione would still have to report to her. The Death Eaters would not have been arrested and You-Know-Who would not have been seen in the Ministry. The wizarding world would not be preparing to fight him.

But Uncle Sirius would not be dead!

Harry longed so much to see him again, to talk with him one last time!

He went to Nearly Headless Nick to ask him where he would have to look for Uncle Sirius' ghost, but the Gryffindor house ghost disappointed him. He thought that Uncle Sirius was not likely to have chosen a ghostly existence at all, but gone on to wait for his friends in the afterlife.


End file.
